In just 20 days in November, there were 10,282 coronavirus cases and 206 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire — the biggest numbers recorded so far.

Hospitals also recorded 120 coronavirus-related deaths this month.

So far this week, there were 2,541 positive cases of COVID-19, 76 deaths and 47 hospital deaths in Greater Lincolnshire.

This comes after 488 new coronavirus cases and 16 COVID-related deaths were reported across Greater Lincolnshire on Friday.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard noted 308 new cases in Lincolnshire, 99 in North East Lincolnshire and 81 in North Lincolnshire.

Among the districts, South Kesteven recorded 36 new cases, putting it on 2027 in total. The number of deaths remained at 65.

However, the dashboard also registered 10 deaths in Lincolnshire and six 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 also reported 12 new hospital deaths on Friday in Greater Lincolnshire. Nine were at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and three at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust.

This takes the total number of hospital deaths in the county to 431.

On Friday, national cases increased by 20,252 to 1,473,508, while deaths rose by 511 to 54,286.

Meanwhile, there's still no indication of what measures will be in place in Lincolnshire once lockdown is supposed to end on December 2.

Health bosses previously said high numbers would suggest the county could face stricter measures.

Andy Fox, consultant in public health at Lincolnshire County Council, said they continued to be concerned – but not alarmed – by the high numbers which pushed East Lindsey to the top of the league.

Areas in stricter tier measures before lockdown already started dropping, but those in more relaxed lower tiers continued to rise.

However, he hoped numbers would begin to plateau from next week and the peak of the second wave would pass.

"We've kind of hit that tipping point where we're hoping lockdown will kick in."

He said the next two weeks were "completely up for grabs" as statistical evidence came in, and there won't be any clarity on future lockdown measures until closer to December 2.

The latest figures show more than a quarter of the county's schools are affected by coronavirus.

However, Mr Fox said it was mainly small numbers of cases, more to do with community transmission than school-based infection.

He said the fact 75% of schools were not impacted showed the measures put in place worked.

"It's right that schools are open and remain open. The risk to children is very low and the evidence suggests that it doesn't spread like wildfire if the risk mitigations in place," he said.

In national news, the UK's infection rate (R number) has fallen from 1.2 to 1.1 according to new data. 

Health secretary Matt Hancock is hopeful the COVID-19 mass vaccination programme will get under way "within a matter of weeks".

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire for Friday, November 20

22,481 cases (up 488)

13,753 in Lincolnshire (up 308)

4,574 in North East Lincolnshire (up 99)

676 deaths (up 16)

439 from Lincolnshire (up 10)

115 from North East Lincolnshire (up six)

of which 431 hospital deaths (up 12)

232 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up nine)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)