The 7-day Covid-19 infection rate in South Kesteven has surged to be four times what it was ten days ago.

Thirteen cases were recorded today, compared with seven yesterday, giving a total of 50 over the past week.

This compares with 45 in the week to yesterday, 21 in the week to last Friday and the recent low of 12 in the week to last Tuesday.

This means the 7-day rate for South Kesteven is now 35.1 cases per 100,000 of population, which is still less than half of the England 7-day case rate of 77.5.

Last Friday, the district's 7-day case rate stood at 14.7 and it was at 11.9 the Friday before and 22.5 the Friday before that.

South Kesteven now has a recorded 7748 cases since the start of the pandemic- about one for each 20 residents, which compares with the England average of one for each 15 residents.

The number of reported deaths remains at 270, following an 'increase' by 3 on Wednesday due to changes in how the figures were calculated, rather than any actual deaths.

Overall across Lincolnshire, there has been a further 53% spike in COVID-19 cases so far this week in Lincolnshire, and hospital-based coronavirus-related deaths have gone up by one compared to last week.

The latest figures show there have been 422 coronavirus cases so far this week but government recorded deaths have decreased by three — an increase of 53.45% compared to the 275 cases and two deaths last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard on Friday recorded 51 new cases in Lincolnshire, 33 in North East Lincolnshire and nine in North Lincolnshire.

There were no deaths reported in government figures, however changes in numbers earlier this week was due to residents being more accurately designated to their correct addresses.

NHS England, however, reported one local hospital death in Greater Lincolnshire's four health trusts so far this week (but none on Friday), equal to this time last week.

On Friday, national COVID cases increased by 10,476 to 4,610,893 while deaths rose by 11 to 127,956.

Lincolnshire's health boss has said that at least half of new coronavirus cases in the county are likely to be the more virulent Delta variant.

Lincolnshire County Council's director of public health Professor Derek Ward said that of the 270 cases in the last seven days, about 110 were the new Delta variant, implying at least half/two-thirds could be the Indian mutation.

However, he said Lincolnshire had a much better chance of getting enough people vaccinated before the lockdown delay ends than some other areas of the UK. Over 900,000 doses have been administered in the county so far, almost 80% of the population.

The R number in England has remained unchanged from last week, staying between 1.2 and 1.4, latest government figures have shown.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also said he is "very confident" that the final stage of lockdown will take place by July 19 after delaying it by a month this week.

61,605 cases (up 93)

42,639 in Lincolnshire (up 51)

9,112 in North East Lincolnshire (up 33)

2,194 deaths (no change)

1,622 from Lincolnshire (no change)

270 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)

of which 1,312 hospital deaths (no change)

816 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (no change)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)