South Kesteven continues to record fewer deaths and Covid-19 cases, reflecting national trends.

The district today recorded 13 cases on Friday, compared with 16 on Thursday.

With numbers well-down on last week, the 7-day rate continues to fall significantly.

The district recorded 110 cases in the week to Friday, compared with 179 cases in the week before.

The 7-day case rate for South Kesteven is now 77.2 cases per 100,000, just below the England average of 81.4, which is also falling rapidly.

The district's 13 cases gives a grand total of 6872 since the start of the pandemic- about one in 20 of South Kesteven's population.

The number of recorded deaths today remained increased three to 256 since the start of the pandemic- about one-in-600 of South Kesteven's population.

In the past week, seven have died with Covid-19 in South Kesteven, compared with 7 week before and 15 the week before that.

Overall, there have been 643 new coronavirus cases and 31 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire so far this week – compared to 1,005 cases and 26 deaths by Friday last week.

The government's COVID-dashboard on Friday recorded 79 new cases in Lincolnshire, 28 in North East Lincolnshire and 23 in North Lincolnshire.

The latest data takes the total number of cases in Greater Lincolnshire to over 54,000.

On Friday, seven deaths were registered in Lincolnshire. These include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

NHS England reported six new local hospital deaths – five at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and one at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Trust. This brings the total of hospital deaths so far this week to 24, a rise from 11 last week.

National cases increased by 5,947 to 4,207,304, while deaths rose by 236 to 124,261.

In local news, the number of coronavirus patients in Greater Lincolnshire hospitals has reduced by nearly 24% in less than three weeks.

COVID-19 testing in Lincolnshire is being scaled back as part of government plans to expand home testing as children return to school.

The vaccination drive continues with a fifth of the Lincolnshire population immunised (271,604 jabs).

However, Lincolnshire parents are being warned not to change their behaviour on the playground as schools go back next week.

Nationally, Office for National Statistics data shows that the number of coronavirus infections in the UK continued to fall.

In the seven days up to February 27, around 280,000 people were confirmed positive, a drop of about a third on the most recent date.

The latest R number – the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to – is between 0.7 and 0.9.

From Monday, care home residents will be allowed to have a regular indoor visitor as long as they take a coronavirus lateral flow test before entry and wear personal protective equipment (PPE).

Hugging and kissing their relatives will be forbidden, although hand holding will be permitted.

Elsewhere, meeting up with one other person outdoors – for example sitting together in a park with coffee, drink, or picnic, will also be permitted.

Further relaxation is hoped to happen from March 29, when the rule of six will again be allowed, along with outdoor sports facilities reopening and the stay at home rule ending.

In a press conference on Friday evening health secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the news that a mystery person in the UK infected with the COVID variant of concern first found in Brazil had now been traced.

He said the 'unbreakable link' between cases, hospitalisation and deaths was 'being broken' due to the vaccine rollout – but added testing still remains 'critical'.

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Friday, March 5

8,149 in North Lincolnshire (up 23)

300 from North Lincolnshire (no change)

41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

430 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up one)

4,207,304 UK cases, 124,261 deaths