South Kesteven has now gone a month without a Covid-related fatality as the district again records just three more cases today.

The district has recorded three cases each day this week, after recording five over the weekend. Last Wednesday it recorded one and recorded 5 the week before.

Overall, 35 cases have been recorded in the past week, compared with 34 the previous week and 23 the week before that.

This gives South Kesteven a 7-day infection rate of 24.6 cases per 100,000, which is just above the England average of 21.8.

Whilst the figures fluctuate, the latest figures remain among the lowest since last year and around a twentieth of figures earlier in the year when the weekly rate exceeded 400 cases per 100,000.

Overall, South Kesteven has seen 7596 recorded cases since the start of the pandemic- which is about one for every 20 residents.

The number of deaths has remained at 266 for a month. This means that around one-in-600 residents have died within 28 days of a positive test since the pandemic started, which compares with an England average of one-in-500.

Overall, across Greater Lincolnshire, there have been no COVID-related deaths recorded in the last five days, with just 44 new coronavirus cases reported on Wednesday.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 19 cases in both Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire and six in North East Lincolnshire on May 12.

NHS England has also reported no new local deaths across Greater Lincolnshire's hospitals for the fifth day in a row and currently stands at 1,305 since the pandemic started.

On Wednesday, national cases increased by 2,284 to 4,441,975, while deaths rose by 11 to 127,640.

In local news, several signs at a school in Cleethorpes have been defaced with stickers encouraging lockdown breaches by an anonymous movement called The White Rose.

The anti-lockdown messages on the signage at Thrunscoe Primary and Nursery Academy included "Staying human is more important than living in fear."

The Local Vaccination Centre (LVC) at the Meres Leisure Centre, Grantham has recently given its 100,000th vaccination.

This comes just five months since it opened and only eight weeks since it celebrated reaching 50,000 vaccinations.

Since Monday, Greater Lincolnshire's infection rates have fallen slightly, with increases in Lincoln city, East Lindsey, West Lindsey and North East Lincolnshire.

However, the region is still above the England average, which has seen a slight increase in its rate of infection over the last two days.

In national coronavirus news, people aged 38 to 39 will be able to book their COVID-19 vaccines from Thursday, as the Prime Minister announced a public inquiry into the pandemic response and a new commission to honour lost loved ones.

Bookings for vaccinations will open on May 13, and 38 and 39-year-olds can sign up for their appointment on the NHS website.

The World Health Organisation should have declared a global emergency earlier than January 30, 2020 and recommended travel restrictions to prevent the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, a panel has said.

A report issued by an independent panel into the handling of the pandemic has also found the month of February last year was "lost" as countries failed to take strong measures to halt the spread of the virus.

In vaccine news, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has tweeted that 67.8% of adults have had the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 35% have had two doses.

– 67.8% of adults have been vaccinated once for COVID-19– 35% of adults have had two vaccines

— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) May 12, 2021

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday, May 12

60,140 cases (up 44)

41,748 in Lincolnshire (up 19)

8,720 in North East Lincolnshire (up six)

2,192 deaths (no change)

1,617 from Lincolnshire (no change)

268 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)

of which 1,305 hospital deaths (no change)

812 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (no change)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)