South Kesteven has recorded just 19 cases of Covid-19 in the past week.

This compares with 48 in the week to last Friday, 83 in the week to the the Friday before and 158 in 7 days before that.

This gives South Kesteven a 7-day infection rate of 13.3 cases per 100,000, which is little more than half the England average of 23.9.

At the start of April, the 7-day rate for South Kesteven was approximately ten times more at 120.8 cases per 100,000, or 125.7 four weeks ago.

Today's figures are the lowest since last year and around a twentieth of figures earlier in the year when the weekly rate exceeded 400 cases per 100,000.

Overall, South Kesteven has seen 7546 recorded cases since the start of the pandemic- which is about one for every 20 residents.

The number of deaths has remained at 266 for about three weeks. This means that around one-in-600 residents have died within 28 days of a positive test since the pandemic started, which compares with an England average of one-in-500.

Overall, April has seen 1,633 COVID-19 cases for the entire month in Greater Lincolnshire — down 63% on March's figure of 4,493.

The county's death rate has also sharply plummeted from 100 in March to 14 this month — a drop of 86%.

So far this week, there have been 266 coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire and one COVID-related deaths  – compared to 251 cases and five the previous week. The government's COVID-19 dashboard on Friday recorded 37 new cases in Lincolnshire, seven in North Lincolnshire and one in North East Lincolnshire. On April 30, one death was taken off the register in North Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county. Fluctuations in data can occur for a variety of reasons including corrected data, misdiagnoses or wrong addresses. NHS England reported no hospital deaths this week so far, the 12th day in a row. Hospitals in April reported a total of seven deaths — a 90.79% fall on the 76 reported in March. On Friday, national cases increased by 2,381 to 4,416,623, while deaths rose by 15 to 127,517. In other news, coronavirus infection rate levels have dropped in Lincolnshire and are now close to the national average, but Northern Lincolnshire has some of the highest rates nationally, pushing up Greater Lincolnshire's average. South Kesteven has the lowest rate in Lincolnshire.

People aged 40 and over are now being invited to book a COVID-19 vaccination as the NHS programme continues to expand.

Nationally, the coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, in England has increased to an estimated 0.8 and 1.1. It means that on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 8 and 11 other people.

An Office for National Statistics survey has suggested that only about 0.1% of the population in the UK – around 1-in-1000 – was infected with coronavirus during the week up to 24 April. Around the same level as late summer 2020. At January's peak it was almost 2%.

World Health Organisation bosses, however, have told Sky News , that the pandemic is "nowhere near over".

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Friday, April 30

59,609 cases (up 45)

41,425 in Lincolnshire (up 37)

9,512 in North Lincolnshire (up seven)

8,672 in North East Lincolnshire (up one)

2,188 deaths (down one)

1,615 from Lincolnshire (no change)

305 from North Lincolnshire (down one)

268 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)

of which 1,303 hospital deaths (no change)

811 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (no change)

41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)

450 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (no change) 4,416,623 UK cases, 127,517 deaths

DATA SOURCE — FIGURES CORRECT AT THE TIME OF THE LATEST UPDATE. POSTCODE DATA INCLUDES DEATHS NOT IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES OR IN HOSPITALS OUTSIDE AUTHORITY BOUNDARIES.