A sharp rise in the number of coronavirus cases has been recorded in South Kesteven.

The UK government's Covid-19 tracker has recorded that the number of cases recorded on Christmas Eve was almost double Wednesday's figure.

A massive 106 cases were recorded on Christmas Eve, compared with 60 on Wednesday.

This gives the district a total of 3426 cases since the start of the pandemic, equivalent to 2405.5 cases per 100,000, around one in 50 of the population.

The Covid-19 tracker, however, did not today update the weekly 7-day rate, which yesterday (Wednesday) stood at 225.4 cases per 100,000 in South Kesteven, based on the 321 cases recorded in the 7 days to Wednesday.

The number of deaths increased by three on Christmas Eve to 116, equivalent to less than one on a thousand of the district's population.

Overall, today (Thur) 521 new coronavirus cases and 15 COVID-related deaths were recorded across Greater Lincolnshire on Christmas Eve.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 447 new cases in Lincolnshire, 43 in North Lincolnshire and 31 in North East Lincolnshire.

On Thursday, 14 deaths were registered in 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 four new local hospital deaths at United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust on Thursday.

Christmas Eve saw national cases increase by 39,036 to 2,188,587, while deaths rose by 574 to 69,625.

Coronavirus levels are continuing to rise with one in 85 people in England infected, according to the Office for National Statistics – half of which potentially with the new variant of COVID-19.

Figures for the week to December 18 estimate nearly 650,000 people have the virus, up from 570,000 the week before.

Over 2% of Londoners are thought to have COVID-19 currently.

In response, Nightingale hospitals across England have been told to prepare themselves for use by the NHS.

NHS staff have vaccinated more than half a million patients against coronavirus in under two weeks, according to official figures published on Thursday.

366,715 of those vaccinated were aged 80 and over, making up 70% of the total number of jabs administered, according to NHS England. Travel between the UK and South Africa has been banned amid concern over a new variant of COVID-19 linked to the country.

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire for Thursday, December 24

34,936 cases (up 521) 23,273 in Lincolnshire (up 447)

5,793 in North Lincolnshire (up 43)

5,870 in North East Lincolnshire (up 31) 1,351 deaths (up 15) 945 from Lincolnshire (up 14)

208 from North Lincolnshire (no change)

198 from North East Lincolnshire (up one) of which 799 hospital deaths (up four) 470 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up four)

19 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)

309 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (no change)

Overall, the UK has seen 2,188,587 cases and 69,625 deaths.