Just seven people are being treated for Covid-19 across Lincolnshire Hospitals.

The figure for May 19 is revealed in the agenda for a board meeting of the NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which people can watch online tomorrow at 9.30am.

A report by Clair Raybould, Director of Operations, says Lincolnshire continues to see a decline in Coronavirus infections, admissions, prevalence and outbreaks.

It all points to recovery, but the pandemic's impact on the staff presents a 'challenge' in the recovery ahead, she said.

"Workforce shortages as a result of Covid have had an impact on the use of bank and agency staff."

Her report said Lincolnshire has seen a decrease in positive cases as a County over the last month with the 7 day average on 19th May being 172 cases, a reduction from the 210 cases reported last month and 648 cases the month before.

The report continued: "There have continued to be small outbreaks across the county in healthcare and care homes settings. In addition there have been outbreaks in schools with the majority of those being single cases but these

numbers are reducing. "At the time of writing (19th May 2021 at 0830hrs) at our principle acute trust United Hospital Lincolnshire NHS Trust there are 7 Covid positive inpatients at the Lincoln and Pilgrim sites, which is the same figure reported in the April paper. There are currently no Covid positive patients in LCHS or LPFT beds. "Critical care reporting to NHSE has been stood down reducing reporting requirements due to an increased confidence in System's abilities to manage the current pressures as a result of COVID." However, both Covid-19 and Non-Covid cases added to seasonal pressures and "throughout the past 4 weeks the system has continued to experience operational challenges." "Primary care is now under significant pressure with levels of activity above pre pandemic levels." The report also said the Local Resilience Forum plans to formally step down from a Major Incident once all lockdown restrictions have been lifted in June. The Strategic Co-Ordination Group will then hand over to a Recovery Co-Ordination Group (RCG) lead by Lincolnshire County Council. Both groups are running concurrently until this time. Announcing tomorrow's board meeting, Sean Lyons, Chair, Lincolnshire CCG, explained: "Like everyone else, we continue to be conscious of our responsibility to follow, and indeed promote, the government's guidance in response to coronavirus, especially where social distancing is concerned. "At the same time the CCG remains fully committed to fulfilling its role of commissioning healthcare on behalf of the Lincolnshire public, and it is important we hold our Board meeting, even though we cannot hold it in public as we would like. "However, we are pleased to be able to confirm that members of the public will be able to virtually join the meeting using Microsoft Teams. This will mean that, just like a normal Board meeting, the public will be able to observe the proceedings of the Board, the only difference being that none of us can be there in person. "We don't underestimate the importance of engaging with the public, and we know it's not ideal, but at least this way the public can still watch the Board meeting and listen to its discussions." Joining instructions for the meeting will be available from the CCG's website Virtual Board meeting: 26 May 2021 @9.30am – Lincolnshire CCG as well as the papers for the Board meeting. Members of the public will be able to submit questions in one of two ways - either during the Board meeting using the Q&A function of Microsoft Teams, or by completing the proforma available with the meeting papers and emailing it to [email protected] by 5pm on Tuesday 25 May. Questions will be collated and responded to after the Board meeting. Led by local GPs and other health professionals, NHS Lincolnshire CCG is responsible for the planning and purchasing of health services across the county, including planned and emergency hospital care, rehabilitation, most community services, and mental health and learning disability services.