Case numbers dropped today but the number of deaths remains high, with South Kesteven recording five deaths today.

There have been 206 new coronavirus cases and 15 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 170 new cases in Lincolnshire, 18 in North Lincolnshire and 18 in North East Lincolnshire.

Among the districts, South Kesteven recorded 47 cases today, down from 59 cases on Monday, giving a grand total of 5740 since the start of the pandemic.

This is equivalent to 4030.2 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 increased slightly to 305.4 cases per 100,000 as the number of weekly cases increased to 435. 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 403.9 cases per 100,000.

The number of deaths increased 5 to 182, giving a rate of 127.8 per 100,000, meaning around one-in-800 of the district's population died with Covid-19.

On Tuesday, 14 deaths were registered in 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 five new local hospital deaths on Tuesday at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.

On Tuesday, national cases increased by 20,089 to 3,689,746 while deaths rose by 1,631 to 100,162 — surpassing the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths since the pandemic started.

All of Lincolnshire's care homes have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccination after meeting targets of inoculation by the weekend, according to local health bosses.

The NHS vaccination team delivered tens of thousands of vaccinations to all of the 202 elderly homes in the county.

The new asymptomatic COVID rapid testing centre in Lincoln completed nearly 200 coronavirus tests in its first day.

The facility at St Swithin's Community Centre on Croft Street, off Monks Road, opened on Monday after relocating from Lincoln City's LNER Stadium. It has so far found one positive case which had not shown symptoms.

The number of patients with coronavirus being treated at hospitals across Greater Lincolnshire has dropped by just over 20%.

There were 324 patients with coronavirus in the county's hospitals on January 6. This has now dropped to 250, which is a decrease of around 23%.

COVID infection rates in Lincolnshire are "bouncing around all over the place" after Boston and South Holland saw spikes in the past few days, a health boss has said.

Boston went from 168.2 coronavirus cases per 100,000 of the population on Friday to 205.2 on Monday this week. This has been due to a "strong uptake of community-wide testing" in the borough, namely the two new rapid testing centres in the town.

Nationally, supplies of vaccines are "tight" but the UK believes it will receive enough doses to meet its targets, the vaccine minister has said.

Nadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast manufacturers were "confident" they would deliver to the UK amid warnings of production delays.

Some travellers coming to England will have to quarantine in hotels, amid concerns about new COVID variants, the government is expected to announce.

Boris Johnson will discuss proposals with ministers later, but a decision may not be made public until Wednesday.

Keeping schools closed is having a "calamitous" impact on children, some of the UK's top paediatricians have warned as they called for teachers to be prioritised for a vaccine.

The group said they were witnessing an "acute and rapid increase in mental health and safeguarding cases", with parents suffering breakdowns and other psychological stress due to home-schooling.

46,628 cases (up 206)

32,611 in Lincolnshire (up 170)

6,845 in North East Lincolnshire (up 18)

1,802 deaths (up 15)

1,293 from Lincolnshire (up 14)

233 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)

of which 1,071 hospital deaths (up five)

658 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up five)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)