South Kesteven has now gone more than three weeks without a death linked to Covid-19.

Official government figures yesterday (Friday) confirmed the number remained at 265 fatalities with Covid since the start of the pandemic.

The total means that around one-in-600 South Kesteven residents will have died withing 28 days of a positive test for the virus.

This is better than the England average of one-in-500 residents.

Friday's numbers also reinforced this week's fall in the seven day infection rate, helped by a change in how the figures are calculated.

They delivered a drop of 13 in the case total for South Kesteven, which helped reduce the number of cases recorded over a week to 83.

This compares with 101 in the week to Thursday and 158 in the week to last Friday.

It seems clear a recent spike has now ended, with the district following national trends in reporting fewer cases.

From a low of 80 about three weeks ago, the number of cases recorded over a week rose to a peak of 158 in the week to last Friday.

South Kesteven now has a 7-day case rate of 58.3 cases per 100,000, but it remains almost double the England average of 31.9, which has been consistent in its decline.

Friday's figure of -14 compares with 14 on Thursday and 13 last Friday.

This gives a grand total of 7430- about one for every 20 residents.

Overall, there have been 308 coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire and nine COVID-related deaths so far this week – a 46% drop in cases and 25% reduction in deaths from the previous week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard on Friday recorded nine new cases in North Lincolnshire but -69 cases in Lincolnshire and -4 in North East Lincolnshire.

As above, this is due to the dashboard changing the way it reports cases.

On April 9, four deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, two 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 no hospitals this week so far, down from four recorded this time last week.

On Friday, national cases increased by 3,150 to 4,365,461, while deaths rose by 60 to 127,040.

In local news, COVID-19 mutations of concern have been detected by health officials in Lincolnshire, but they said they've been contained, and there is "no longer transmission, no issues."

The Brazil and South Africa variants have worried scientists because they are thought to be much more contagious than the original strain, and can therefore spread faster in the population, and potentially be vaccine-resistant.

Health bosses have also said there have been no hospitalisations or deaths from a care home coronavirus outbreak in West Lindsey at the end of March.

Everyone in Lincolnshire can now get two free rapid asymptomatic coronavirus tests a week.

Great Lincolnshire has seen a fall in all of its districts' infection rates since Wednesday, however South Holland and North Lincolnshire are still in the UK's top 20 highest rates.

The England average infection rate has fallen too but is still below Greater Lincolnshire's average by around 20 per 100,000 of the population.

Nationally, Europe's drugs regulator is reviewing possible links between blood clots and Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine.

The move comes after four serious cases of rare clots with low platelets were reported after the COVID-19 jab, one of which was fatal, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

58,544 cases (up nine)

40,813 in Lincolnshire (down 69)

8,555 in North East Lincolnshire (down four)

2,180 deaths (up seven)

1,608 from Lincolnshire (up four)

268 from North East Lincolnshire (up two)

of which 1,300 hospital deaths (no change)

808 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (no change)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)