Lincoln could be in discussions over tier 2 (high) restrictions by the weekend, health bosses have said.

Lincolnshire County Council's public health officials are advising that the city — at least — could be put into a higher tier as numbers continue to rise across the county.

Lincoln's rate of infection per 100,000 of the population alone rose from 154.1 on October 16 to 213.5 on October 23, just above the England average of 212.5.

South Kesteven, meanwhile, has over the past week seen numbers increase by 175, a rate of 122.9 per 100,000- just over half the Lincoln rate.

The city has had 1,063 cases since the pandemic began, with the number on Monday increasing by 59.

On Monday, 346 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Greater Lincolnshire, pushing October's total to more than 5,000.

The county's Outbreak Management Board, which includes representatives from councils, health and other response bodies, will meet on Wednesday to discuss the next steps.

Neighbours Nottinghamshire on Monday confirmed that Nottingham city along with the districts of Rushcliffe, Gedling and Broxtowe face tier 3 lockdown from midnight on Thursday — though Newark on the Lincolnshire border will stay in tier 2 for now.

Lincolnshire County Council's assistant director of public health Tony McGinty said Lincolnshire was "fairly close" to having similar conversations.

"If you look at the numbers in some of our districts we probably are going to be wanting to talk about taking additional measures over the coming week or two," he said.

"Some of those numbers […] are looking quite difficult."

He added: "Lincoln is having some particularly challenging times at the moment with its numbers […] for me at the moment, the district I'm spending most of my time talking to colleagues about and talking to City of Lincoln Council colleagues about is Lincoln."

He said local and national leaders may want to have that conversation "over the coming days or weeks".

Lincolnshire is currently still on the medium (tier 1) level for the the new three-tier lockdown system of COVID-19 risk, which means it has no extra restrictions on top of the nation-wide ones.

If that decision is made to move up a tier, the next steps will include discussions over what the additional measures will mean and what extra funding will be made available.

Meanwhile, three wards at Boston's Pilgrim Hospital have been closed to new admissions following a series of COVID outbreaks.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust believes the cases are connected and has now restricted visiting in order to contain the virus transmission.

A ULHT spokesperson said: "We have a number of patients and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19 at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston across three separate wards, and on each ward we believe the cases may be connected.

"Therefore, we have restricted admissions to the wards to ensure this is contained and does not impact on other staff, patients or services."

They added that anyone with an appointment at the facility should still attend but can contact the relevant department if they had any concerns.