South Kesteven has now gone three weeks without a death linked to Covid-19.

Official government figures this afternoon confirmed the number remained at 265 fatalities with Covid since the start of the pandemic.

The total means that around one-in-600 South Kesteven residents will have died withing 28 days of a positive test for the virus.

This is better than the England average of one-in-500 residents.

Today's numbers also reinforced this week's fall in the seven day infection rate, with weekly case numbers dropping from 108 in the week to yesterday to 101 in the week to today.

It further fuels hopes that a 'spike' of cases in South Kesteven may be ending, with a large drop in the 7-day infection rate already underway.

After more than doubling in recent weeks, the number of cases recorded over a week have headed back down.

From a low of 80 about three weeks ago, the number of cases recorded over a week rose to a peak of 158 in the week to last Friday.

South Kesteven now has a 7-day case rate of 70.9 cases per 100,000, but it remains double the England average of 37, which has been consistent in its decline.

Today saw 14 cases recorded, which compares with 14 yesterday, 5 on Tuesday and 14 on Easter Monday. Last Thursday recorded 18, showing the daily fluctuations that do take place.

This gives a grand total of 7444- about one for every 20 residents.

Overall, there have been 93 new coronavirus cases and no COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Thursday, down from 121 cases and one death this time last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 53 new cases in Lincolnshire, 22 in North Lincolnshire and 18 in North East Lincolnshire.

On Thursday, no deaths were registered in Northern Lincolnshire and -2 in Lincolnshire. Fluctuations in data can occur for a variety of reasons including corrected data, misdiagnoses or wrong addresses. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

NHS England has reported no new local hospital deaths on Thursday, the fourth day in a row this week.

National cases increased by 3,030 to 4,370,321, while deaths rose by 53 to 126,980. Six million Britons have now received both doses of a COVID vaccine.

In local news, the number of COVID-19 vaccines given out in Lincolnshire last week dropped by nearly 35%, but with more than 419,000 first doses now administered, there have been four days in a row without hospital deaths.

The weekly data released on Thursday shows altogether 468,365 jabs have taken place between December 8 and April 4 — a further 32,282 in the last week but a massive drop on the 49,607 jabs given the week before.

There has been a 96% fall in COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire overall since the peak of the second wave, with the largest drop in the north of the region.

The government figures are 4% above the weekly COVID deaths in England estimated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday, which showed a fall of 92% since the second wave peak.

In national news, increasingly strong evidence shows that the UK's vaccination programme is breaking the link between COVID-19 cases and deaths, scientists tracking the epidemic have said.

A study found infections had fallen by roughly two-thirds since February, before beginning to level off.

The UK could reach coronavirus herd immunity by Monday, modelling by University College London (UCL) has forecasted in contrast with government scientific advisers' warning of a surge in hospitalisations over the summer.

The UCL research, seen by The Telegraph, estimates that almost three-quarters of people (73.4 per cent) will have immunity from the virus through vaccination or previous infection on 12 April.

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Thursday, April 8

9,167 in North Lincolnshire (up 22)

303 from North Lincolnshire (no change)

41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

450 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (no change)

4,370,321 UK cases, 126,980 deaths