No deaths with Covid-19 were again recorded in South Kesteven today, but the district reported 18 cases.

However, the country is on a downward trend, with its 7-day case rate now below the national average for England.

The figures released this afternoon shows the district has gone without a fatality since two were recorded on Monday.

Some 84 cases were recorded in South Kesteven over the past seven days (compared with 85 in the week to Thursday), giving the district a rate of 59 cases per 100,000.

This compares with the England average of 59.6, which has been consistently trending down.

The total number of cases in the district is 6975, which means around one-in-20 residents will have tested positive with the virus at some stage.

The number of deaths, which remains at 263, means that almost one-in-500 will have died with Covid-19 during the pandemic to date,

The past 7 days has seen four deaths in South Kesteven, compared with 7 the previous week and 7 the week before that.

Overall, there have been 818 new coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire and 19 COVID-related deaths so far this week — compared to 643 cases and 31 deaths by this time last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard on Friday recorded 99 new cases in Lincolnshire, 47 in North East Lincolnshire and 39 in North Lincolnshire.

On Friday, one death was registered North East Lincolnshire, but none in Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county. Deaths in North East Lincolnshire have now surpassed 8,000 since the pandemic started.

NHS England reported one new local hospital death at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and one at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, bringing the total so far this week to 15, a drop from 24 last week.

On Friday, national cases increased by 6,609 to 4,248,286, while deaths rose by 175 to 125,343.

Nearly half of Lincolnshire's adult population has been vaccinated, as more COVID tests were carried out in the county, showing lower positivity rates.

Over 300,000 people in the county have now received their first dose of a coronavirus jab, which is almost half the number of the eligible population (18 years and over) of around 650,000.

Some 94,000 COVID-19 tests have been carried out in the seven days up to March 9 in Lincolnshire, "a real expansion in the number of tests that we're doing," say health bosses.

NHS Lincolnshire Care Commissioning Group said the abuse of its staff working through the vaccination rollout is unacceptable.

Numerous reports of verbal abuse have been reported to commissioners by staff working at testing sites and GP practices.

Greater Lincolnshire has seen a slight decrease in its infection rate since Wednesday, with spikes across four of its nine districts.

Despite South Holland seeing a fall in its infection rate, it still remains top highest in the county and 11th nationally.

South Kesteven, East Lindsey and North Kesteven are the only districts below the England infection rate average of 59.6 per 100,000 people.

Attached are the 7-day rates for districts across Greater Lincolnshire.

In national news, the UK's coronavirus reproduction number – or R number – has fallen to between 0.6 and 0.8 from last week (0.7 to 0.9). This means for every 10 people infected, they will pass COVID on to between six and eight others, showing the pandemic is shrinking.

This comes as the prevalence of coronavirus in England has fallen again – to the lowest level since late September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Countries should not stop using AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine over fears it causes blood clots as there is no indication this is true, the World Health Organization says.

Bulgaria is the latest country to suspend use of the vaccine.

Italy is set to impose another national lockdown over the Easter weekend to combat growing numbers of coronavirus cases.

It will see non-essential shops closed from April 3 to April 5, with people only allowed to leave their homes for work, health or emergency reasons, according to a draft government decree seen by Reuters news agency.

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Friday, March 12

8,351 in North Lincolnshire (up 39)

300 from North Lincolnshire (no change)

41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

434 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up one)

4,248,286 UK cases, 125,343 deaths