South Kesteven recorded 134 cases of Covid-19 over the weekend but the district has now gone almost 11 weeks without a death.

The total remains at 270, with the last fatality related to the virus in the district being on Wednesday May 5.

The last fatality priority to that was Tuesday March 25, showing South Kesteven has experienced just two deaths with Covid-19 in more than 15 weeks.

However, the 7-day case rate in South Kesteven has continued rising, with it increasing by half over the past week.

The 134 positive tests recorded over the weekend compares with 109 on Friday and 61 people testing positive on Thursday.

The weekend's 134 cases also compares with 78 last weekend and 44 testing positive the weekend before.

Overall, there have been 8702 recorded cases in South Kesteven since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to about one for about 16 residents in the district.

The 7-day rate is now 230.3 cases per 100,000- meaning one-in-400 will have tested positive with the virus over the past week- compared 153.8 in the week to last Sunday and 79.3 the Sunday before.

However, despite the sharp increases, it remains well below the England average of 398.6 cases per 100,000.

The England average 7-day rate has steadily risen in recent weeks, while the South Kesteven figure has tended to fluctuate at a much reduced level before creeping upwards.

The figures come as testing has been ramped up significantly across the country, with 1.2 million tests taking place on Saturday and 7.2 million over the past week.

Nationally, there were 25 recorded deaths with Covid-19 yesterday and there were 41 deaths recorded on Saturday, compared with 49 on Friday. In the week to yesterday, some 283 have died with Covid, an increase of 80 or 39.4 per cent on the week before.

Some 54,674 were tested positive on Saturday and 48,161 yesterday. The total of confirmed cases in the week to yesterday is 316,691, an increase of 95,639 or 43.3 per cent on the previous week.