Grantham hospital has suspended 'non-urgent' appointments as the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust reports two more victims of Coronavirus at its hospitals.

The move comes as the number of confirmed cases in Lincolnshire continues to rise rapidly.

Public Health England this afternoon reported that the county has 153 confirmed cases, an increase of 19 from the 133 yesterday.

Over the past two days, the number of cases reported by Public Health England has risen by nearly half from the 104 reported on Tuesday.

The United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust this afternoon reported two more deaths at its hospitals, but once again, it declined to say which of its four hospitals any of the deaths came from.

The trust operates hospitals at Grantham, Lincoln, Boston and Louth.

A spokesperson for ULHT said:"Sadly we can confirm that two further patients who were being cared for in our hospitals, and had tested positive for COVID-19, have died. This brings the total number of deaths in ULHT hospitals to 11.

"The patients were one woman aged 80 and one man aged 74. Both had underlying health conditions.

"Their families have been informed and our thoughts and condolences are with them at this difficult and distressing time."

This afternoon, ULHT also announced that to try and stop the spread of Coronavirus, it would suspend all non-urgent appointments at all its hospitals, until a time when they can safely be re-arranged.

Patients have been asked not to attend outpatients unless they have been contacted directly. The trust said it is also conducting some outpatient appointments by telephone or video calling.

The move comes as Lincolnshire health chiefs warned any easing of lockdown restrictions were still 'weeks away.'

Tony McGinty, assistant director of public health at Lincolnshire County Council, said people need to check their stamina for long term restriction measures.

Mr McGinty added that he hoped that in weeks to come people will be able to see benefits of lockdown in the virus case figures.

He said people should "take a pause" and think about their stamina and how they can get through the lockdown period.

Elsewhere, Peterborough reported one extra case today, giving a total of 37 confirmed cases. Rutland also saw an increase of one confirmed case to five. Nationally, there are 33,718 reported and confirmed cases, an increase of 4,244 on yesterday. The number of deaths increased by 569 to 2,921. Additional reporting by BBC Local Democracy Reporter Calvin Robinson