South Kesteven has today recorded a fall in its 7-day infection rate, but the number of deaths in the district increased to six.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 233 new cases in Lincolnshire, 32 in North Lincolnshire and 24 in North East Lincolnshire.

Among the districts, South Kesteven recorded 61 cases today, an increase on the 47 cases recorded yesterday but down from 59 cases on Monday, giving a grand total of 5801 since the start of the pandemic.

This is equivalent to 4073 cases per 100,000 of population, meaning about one-in-25 of the district's population will have succumbed to the virus at some stage during the pandemic.

The 7-day rate has dropped to 294.2 cases per 100,000 as the number of weekly cases dropped to 419. Over the past week or so, it has hovered around the 400 mark, with a rate around 300.

This is well below the England rate of 386.6 cases per 100,000.

The number of deaths increased 6 to 182, compared with 5 yesterday, giving a rate of 132.8 per 100,000, meaning around one-in-800 of the district's population died with Covid-19.

Overall, on Wednesday, 18 deaths were registered in Lincolnshire and two 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 15 new local hospital deaths on Wednesday, including nine at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and six at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG).

On Wednesday, national cases increased by 25,308 to 3,715,054, while deaths rose by 1,725 to 101,887.

The Prime Minister has said "it will not be possible to reopen schools" after the February half term, with the hope to bring pupils back from March 8.

Boris Johnson also told MPs that UK nationals and residents returning from "red list" countries will be placed in a 10-day quarantine in government-secured accommodation, such as hotels.

The 22 "red list" countries where there is a risk of known variants include South Africa, Portugal and South American nations.

In the House of Commons on Wednesday, the MP for Cleethorpes, Martin Vickers praised travel quarantine proposals but raised concerns of the "element of contact between" those in hotels "however well-policed it is".

He urged the home secretary to give "assurance that there will be appropriate measures in place to limit mixing to the absolute minimum."

Priti Patel responded: "We are working quickly across government right now with the industry, with partners and organisations within the sector to bring these new measures and work on the hotel package."

Further details of this will be put out in due course, according to the home secretary.

In Lincolnshire, bin collections in Boston and in parts of East Lindsey will be suspended for the rest of the week due to COVID-related staff absences.

The collections will be suspended from Wednesday, January 27 as a number of East Lindsey District Council's and Boston Borough Council's waste crews either have coronavirus or are self-isolating.

South Kesteven will carry on as normal, bar a few changes due to the weekend's snow, which prevented collections on Monday.

Nationally, "a legacy of poor decisions" by the UK before and during the pandemic led to one of the worst death rates in the world, scientists have said.

Professor Linda Bauld, public health expert from the University of Edinburgh, said the UK's current position was "a legacy of poor decisions that were taken when we eased restrictions".

People infected with the new coronavirus variant discovered in the UK are less likely to report losing taste and smell as part of their symptoms, a study has found.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the condition was "significantly less common" in patients who tested positive for the new variant compared to those with other variants of COVID-19.

Greater Lincolnshire has seen a fall in its infection rates once again with only slight increases in the districts of Boston and North Lincolnshire.

As noted above, the trend in South Kesteven remains downwards, with the district remaining third in a list of county host spots (see attachment).

This mirrors the national average infection rate also decreasing on Wednesday.

46,917 cases (up 289)

32,844 in Lincolnshire (up 233)

6,869 in North East Lincolnshire (up 24)

1,822 deaths (up 20)

1,311 from Lincolnshire (up 18)

233 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)

of which 1,086 hospital deaths (up 15)

667 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up nine)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)