South Kesteven has recorded four deaths today, the same as yesterday.

Overall, there have been 299 new coronavirus cases and 19 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday — up from 13 deaths yesterday and six the day before.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 230 new cases in Lincolnshire, 36 in North East Lincolnshire and 33 in North Lincolnshire. Cases have now surpassed 7,000 in North East Lincolnshire.

South Kesteven reported 39 cases today, putting it on 6151 since the start of the pandemic. This means about one person in 25 in the district have a recorded case since the start of the pandemic.

The district is experiencing a downward trend with it 376 cases over the past week, giving a rate of 264 cases per 100,000. This is a decrease from 278.7 recorded over the weekend.

This is just below the England average of 269.1 cases per 100,000, which is also on a downward trend.

The number of deaths in South Kesteven increased by four today to 208, following an increase of four yesterday. This means about on-in-70,000 will have died with Covid-19 since the pandemic started.

On Wednesday, 15 deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, three in North East Lincolnshire and one in North Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

NHS England reported seven new local hospital deaths on Wednesday, including five at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, one at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG) and one at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals.

On Wednesday, national cases increased by 19,202 to 3,871,825, while deaths rose by 1,322 to 109,335.

All Lincolnshire care home residents over the age of 65 have now been offered the first dose of the coronavirus vaccination.

The over 65s in 202 Lincolnshire care homes that are eligible were offered their first dose and everyone who accepted is believed to have now been vaccinated.

On Wednesday, Greater Lincolnshire saw increases in four districts but an overall decline in its infection rate.

Small infection rate increases across Lincolnshire "aren't too concerning" for local health bosses so far, as they are looking at the bigger picture.

Andy Fox, Consultant in Public Health at Lincolnshire County Council, said: "It's the trend over time that we're worried about and as long as it looks like it's heading down, the ups and downs along the way aren't too concerning."

Ten million people in the UK have now had their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.

"This is a hugely significant milestone in our national effort against this virus. Every jab makes us all a bit safer – I want to thank everyone playing their part," Mr Hancock said.

Nearly 500,000 people have had a second jab, according to government data up to the 1 February.

About one in seven people in private households in England had contracted coronavirus by mid-January, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates. The figure is equivalent to 6.9 million people – 15.3% of the population. Vaccines against new variants of coronavirus should be ready to be rolled out by October, according to the team behind the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab. Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford vaccine group, said work on designing a new jab could be a quick process. Results that show the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine might reduce the spread of coronavirus have been hailed as "absolutely superb" by the health secretary. Matt Hancock said the study shows "vaccines are the way out of this pandemic". Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday, February 3

48,801 cases (up 299)

34,340 in Lincolnshire (up 230)

7,429 in North Lincolnshire (up 33)

7,032 in North East Lincolnshire (up 36)

1,904 deaths (up 19)

1,383 from Lincolnshire (up 15)

284 from North Lincolnshire (up one)

237 from North East Lincolnshire (up three)

of which 1,126 hospital deaths (up seven)

697 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up five)

35 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (up one)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)

393 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up one) 3,871,825 UK cases, 109,335 deaths