South Kesteven has joined a national trend of lower cases, though at a slower rate.

This week, official government figures report 1,204 new coronavirus cases and 64 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire.

The figure presents a hefty drop compared to 2,239 cases and 82 deaths in the first full week of January, and a continued decrease from 1,384 cases and 68 deaths last week.

Among the districts, South Kesteven reported 50 cases today, putting it on 6246 since the start of the pandemic. This means about one person in 20 in the district have a recorded case since the start of the pandemic.

The district is experiencing a downward trend with it recording 365 cases over the past week, giving a rate of 256.3 cases per 100,000. This is a decrease from 279.4 a week ago.

This is similar to the England average of 257.6 cases per 100,000, which is also on a downward trend. But with other district declining faster, South Kesteven now has the second highest 7-day rate in Lincolnshire.

The number of deaths in South Kesteven increased by three to 216 yesterday, after rises of five yesterday and four on Wednesday. This means about on-in-70,000 in the district will have died with Covid-19 since the pandemic started.

Overall, some 229 new cases and 15 deaths were reported in Greater Lincolnshire on Friday. The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 182 new cases in Lincolnshire, 24 in North East Lincolnshire and 23 in North Lincolnshire.

On Friday, 10 deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, four in North 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 five new local hospital deaths at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, two at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals and one at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG).

Some 31 hospital deaths have been recorded this week, compared to 36 in the first full week of January.

On Friday, national cases increased by 19,114 to 3,911,573, while deaths rose by 1,014 to 111,264.

Lincolnshire health bosses want a slow re-opening of the country, with schools first, amid hopes of a more positive Easter.

They have been feeding back to central government the need to "make one change" first and wait two weeks in order to test the waters and monitor COVID-19.

This week, nearly 130,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Lincolnshire.

The weekly data released on Thursday showed 127,606 jabs between December 8 and January 31 – up by 40,206 on last week.

By Wednesday, all Lincolnshire care home residents over the age of 65 were offered the first dose of the coronavirus vaccination.

All over 65s in 202 Lincolnshire care homes that are eligible were offered their first dose and everyone who accepted is believed to have now been vaccinated.

The first patients received their jabs as the county's second largest coronavirus vaccination centre opened at Lincolnshire Showground on Tuesday morning.

COVID-19 vaccinations are provided from the new EXO Centre at Lincolnshire Showground.

It is now open daily between 8am and 8pm and can deliver around 1,000 doses a day — by invitation only.

The UK's coronavirus reproduction number (R number) – is now between 0.7 and 1.0, according to the latest estimate, down from 0.7 and 1.1 last week.

The R refers to the number of people an infected person will pass COVID-19 on to and means for every 10 people infected, they will pass the virus on to between seven and 10 others.

There has been a slight decline in the overall infection rate in Greater Lincolnshire, but a mixture of increases and decreases across districts.

However, health bosses this week said small infection rate increases "aren't too concerning" as they are looking at the bigger picture.

Andy Fox, Consultant in Public Health at Lincolnshire County Council, said: "It's the trend over time that we're worried about, and as long as it looks like it's heading down, the ups and downs along the way aren't too concerning."

In national news, the government has revealed it wants all over-50s to be reached in the coronavirus vaccine rollout by May.

It is a significant target and the first time a firm date has been put on when all those in the top nine categories on the priority list for a COVID-19 jab will be offered one by.

No contracts have yet been awarded to hotels to take part in England's new quarantine scheme, No 10 has said.

From February 15, all those arriving from 33 COVID variant hotspots will have to stay in a hotel for 10 nights.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine remains effective against the coronavirus variant first detected in Kent and the South East, researchers have found.

The researchers who developed the jab say it has a similar efficacy against the variant compared to the original COVID-19 strain it was tested against.

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Friday, February 5

7,494 in North Lincolnshire (up 23)

289 from North Lincolnshire (up four)

37 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (up two)

396 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up one)

3,911,573 UK cases, 111,264 deaths