There has been a 96% fall in COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire overall since the peak of the second wave, with the largest drop in the north of the region.

The government figures are 4% above the weekly COVID deaths in England estimated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday, which showed a fall of 92% since the second wave peak.

Lincolnshire has seen a fall of 90% in coronavirus deaths since its peak in mid December 2020, while North and North East Lincolnshire authorities have seen an almost 100% fall in their deaths from their peaks until now.

Lincolnshire's second wave peak was in December, with 22 deaths recorded in one day on December 12 — that number has fallen to two as of April 7.

North Lincolnshire's peak was slightly earlier, on November 28 which saw eight deaths in the authority, the highest it ever recorded. As of Wednesday, no deaths were reported there.

It's a similar picture with its neighbouring authority, North East Lincolnshire, which saw its highest COVID death count of seven on both November 21 and December 4. Wednesday saw no deaths recorded in the borough.

On Tuesday, Professor Derek Ward, director for public health at Lincolnshire County Council, highlighted the importance of keeping track of COVID-19 hospitalisations and death numbers.

"The important question is how many people are ending up in hospital and sadly how many people are losing their lives to COVID."

He added that coronavirus infection rates are "definitely coming down very significantly and that's really good news."

On Wednesday there was a 30% weekly drop in COVID inpatients at Greater Lincolnshire hospitals, as well as the third day in a row this week with no coronavirus-related hospital deaths reported at any of the four health trusts.