South Kesteven has gone more than a week without recording a death from Covid-19.

However, the 7-day Covid-19 infection rate has kept on rising.

Official government figures recorded 22 cases today, compared with 18 yesterday, 11 yesterday and 22 each on Monday and Tuesday.

This gives a grand total of 7362 since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to one case for almost 20 residents.

South Kesteven has recorded 179 cases in the past week, compared with 172 in the week to yesterday.

In the week to last Friday, the numbers were 127, 108 in the week to the Friday before, and 84 in the week to the Friday before that.

Today's figure gives a 7-day case rate of 125.7, which is more than double the England average of 53.5 cases per 100,000.

Overall, there have been 572 coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire and 12 COVID-related deaths so far this week — a fall of 27% in cases and 33% down in deaths compared to this time last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard on Good Friday recorded 48 new cases in Lincolnshire, 22 in North Lincolnshire and 15 in North East Lincolnshire.

On April 2, one death was registered in North Lincolnshire, with -1 deaths in both Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county. Fluctuations in data can occur for a variety of reasons including corrected data, misdiagnoses or wrong addresses.

NHS England reported one hospital death at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and one at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, meaning the tally so far this week is four, down from nine last week.

On Good Friday, national cases increased by 3,402 (the lowest number since mid-September) to 4,353,668, while deaths rose by 52 to 126,816.

Since Wednesday, Greater Lincolnshire and the UK have only seen slight decreases in their infection rates. Spikes have occurred in South Kesteven, Boston, North East Lincolnshire and East Lindsey.

Lincoln continues to have the lowest infection rate in the county and is ranked 213th nationally. However, it's a different picture with North Lincolnshire who are ranked 7th nationally and first in Greater Lincolnshire.

Nationally, the government is considering plans for so-called COVID-19 passports for those who have been vaccinated, allowing them access to pubs, restaurants, theatres, stadiums and nightclubs without social distancing needed.

Trials of vaccine passports or "certificates" could begin next month and a pilot scheme will begin to update the NHS COVID App to allow users to prove they have been vaccinated.

England's R number could be as high as 1 and cases may have stopped shrinking, according to government scientists' latest estimates.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) estimates England's latest R number to be between 0.8 and 1 – up from between 0.7 and 0.9 across the whole of the UK last week. This means for every 10 infected, they will pass COVID onto between eight and 10 others.

Pakistan, Kenya, Bangladesh and the Philippines have been added to England's coronavirus "red list". The move, which will take effect from 4am on Friday, 9 April, is in response to concerns about new variants of COVID-19, like those first detected in South Africa and Brazil. Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Friday, April 2

58,182 cases (up 85)

40,622 in Lincolnshire (up 48)

9,070 in North Lincolnshire (up 22)

8,490 in North East Lincolnshire (up 15)

2,174 deaths (up one)

1,604 from Lincolnshire (down one)

304 from North Lincolnshire (up one)

266 from North East Lincolnshire (down one)

of which 1,299 hospital deaths (up two)

807 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up one)

41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)

450 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up one) 4,353,668 UK cases, 126,816 deaths