A growing number of cases has boosted the 7-day infection rate in South Kesteven.

The number of cases recorded over the past week has increased to 102 in the week to yesterday, 94 in the week to Monday and 89 in the week to Sunday.

Last week, South Kesteven recorded 81 cases in the week to Tuesday and 80 cases in the week to Wednesday, before numbers started drifting up again.

The increase of around a quarter now gives South Kesteven a 7-day case rate of 71.6 cases per 100,000 residents.

This compares with an England average of 58.6, which has been consistently declining in recent weeks.

The number of cases in South Kesteven was recorded at 14 yesterday, compared with 13 on Monday and 25 over the weekend.

This gives a grand total of 7027 cases, equivalent to one for every 25 residents.

The number of deaths remained at 263, equivalent to about one-in-600 residents. This is slightly less than the England average of about one death for every 500 residents.

Overall, there have been 129 new coronavirus cases and four COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday — a minor increase from 128 cases and three deaths this time last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 81 new cases in Lincolnshire, 28 in North Lincolnshire and 20 in North East Lincolnshire.

On Tuesday, three deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, one in North East Lincolnshire and -1 in North Lincolnshire. Fluctuations in data are usually due to some deaths in those areas being reallocated to other regions across the UK or a miscount. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

NHS England has reported seven new local hospital deaths at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust and one at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.

On Tuesday, national cases increased by 5,294 to 4,268,821, while deaths rose by 110 to 125,690.

In local news, Lincolnshire's health bosses said the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and "saves lives" after several European countries stopped administering it over blood clot concerns.

Lincolnshire County Council's assistant director for public health Andy Fox said the temporary bans on the vaccine globally were "mind-boggling".

A school in Gainsborough has closed as Lincolnshire County Council also revealed that 31 local schools have reported 56 positive test results in the last seven days.

St George's Church of England Community Primary School is the only school reported to the council to have fully closed. It is expected to reopen on Monday, March 22.

South Lincolnshire's COVID-19 infection rates are still some of the highest in the country and the weekend has also seen spikes across Northern Lincolnshire.

Health bosses are putting the consistently high south Lincolnshire infection rates down to the working age population going out to earn money and working in essential food production factories.

Greater Lincolnshire's infection rate up to March 15 according to the government's dashboard is attached.

In national news, British and European regulators rushed to the defence of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Monday night as six more countries stopped using it over unconfirmed links to blood clots.

Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal announced temporary pauses pending an investigation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is due to report by Thursday.

The UK suffered its worst day for COVID-19 deaths during the second wave of the virus, new analysis confirms.

A total of 1,463 deaths occurred on January 19 where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. This is four more than the 1,459 deaths that occurred on April 8 2020, which was previously the UK's "deadliest day".

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday, March 16

8,483 in North Lincolnshire (up 28)

299 from North Lincolnshire (down one)

41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

443 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up seven)

4,268,821 UK cases, 125,690 deaths