A sharp reduction of fresh cases of Covid-19 has been recorded across Greater Lincolnshire.

Official government figures today record 123 new coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday, less than half the daily average in the past two months.

However, there were also 14 COVID-related deaths as new quarantines have been announced for international travellers.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 97 new cases in Lincolnshire, 17 in North Lincolnshire and nine in North East Lincolnshire. Greater Lincolnshire has now surpassed 50,000 cases since the start of the pandemic.

Among the districts, South Kesteven, recorded 15 cases today, compared with 33 yesterday and 81 over the weekend. This puts the district on 6,375 in total, equivalent to just over one-in-25 people in the district succumbing to the virus at some stage.

The 7-day rate has decreased from 23140.1 cases per 100,000 on Friday to 224.7 cases per 100,000- a drop of about a fifth. The number of cases over the past week has fallen from 376 last week Friday to 320 today.

This is reflected nationally, which has seen the England 7-day rate drop from 281.9 cases per 100,000 to 212.6 cases per 100,000 today.

However, South Kesteven recorded six deaths today, after none yesterday, putting the total on 225 fatalities since the start of the pandemic.

Altogether, about one-in-600 residents in the district have died after testing positive with the virus.

On Tuesday, 12 deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, one in North Lincolnshire and one in North East Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

NHS England reported two new local hospital deaths at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and two at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG).

On Tuesday, national cases increased by 12,364 to 3,972,148, deaths rose by 1,052 to 113,850 while COVID first jab numbers hit 12.6 million.

In local news, around 76% of Lincolnshire's coronavirus cases are officially now considered to be the Kent variant – but bosses say we're still free of the South African mutation.

Lincolnshire County Council's assistant director of public health Andy Fox said, however, that only 32% of cases had been tested for the variant.

Bosses have previously said they expect that at some point in the future 98-100% of cases will be new variants.

In national news, fines of up to £10,000 and prison sentences are in store for people who fail to abide by new quarantine guidelines when travelling from red list countries, the government has warned.

Starting February 15, travellers returning from the 33 red list countries will need to pay £1,750 for a quarantine package which includes staying in a hotel for 10 days.

Nearly half (45.7%) of all deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 29 January mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate – the highest proportion recorded during the pandemic.

There were 8,433 deaths linked to coronavirus in the final full week of January, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It is "extremely unlikely" the novel coronavirus came from a laboratory incident in China, according to a joint mission investigating the origins of the pandemic.

Investigators believe the most likely cause of the initial outbreak was the virus jumping from an "intermediary host species" to humans.

The use of ten million surgical gowns, bought by the UK government, has been suspended for frontline NHS staff because of how the items were packaged.

Sterile gowns were bought for £70m from a US firm last year, but safety concerns were raised when they arrived in one layer of protective packaging.

Here's Greater Lincolnshire's infection rate up to February 8 according to the government's dashboard:

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday, February 9

7,602 in North Lincolnshire (up 17)

291 from North Lincolnshire (up one)

37 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

399 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up two)

3,972,148 UK cases, 113,850 deaths