South Kesteven has recorded 58 cases of Covid-19 today.

The number has further increased the district's 7-day infection rate to its highest in over a week.

The 58 positive tests compares with 64 positive tests recorded yesterday and 41 on Tuesday.

It also compares with last Thursday's 51 positive tests and 46 the Thursday before.

The 7-day rate for South Kesteven is now 236.7 cases per 100,000, compared with 231.7 yesterday, 226.1 last Thursday and 342.6 the Wednesday before.

This compares with the England average of 283.7, which has fallen from 288.1 yesterday, 375.2 last Thursday and its recent high of 540 the Friday prior to that.

The figures come amid much testing, typically a million people a day and around 7 million a week, though in the past week or so testing has now dropped to 845,000 yesterday and 5.3 million over a week.

Overall, there have been 9618 cases in South Kesteven since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to about one for about 15 residents in the district, which compares to the England average of one-in-11.

The number of fatalities stands at 272, after increasing one on Tuesday, which followed on from a further fatality at the weekend.

Prior to those cases, the only other recent cases of people dying with Covid in South Kesteven were on May 5 and March 25.

This means the district has recorded 4 deaths in just over 4 months.

Meanwhile, Lincoln continues to have the highest COVID infection rate in England on Thursday, with its seven-day rate increasing from 716 per 100,000 population to 741.

Government figures released on Thursday showed 405 new cases in Lincolnshire, 105 in North Lincolnshire and 120 in North East Lincolnshire. The 630 case total is 2% higher than last Thursday's 618 cases.

There were no coronavirus-related deaths in the government figures today in the Lincolnshire region.

However, NHS figures reported one further death in Greater Lincolnshire's hospital facilities today.

Around a quarter of under 30s in Lincolnshire still have not had their first dose of COVID-19 vaccination as youth hotspots are blamed for Lincoln sitting top of the national rankings for its infection rate.

Vaccine figures released by the government on Thursday showed Lincolnshire health staff had now given out 1,030,246 cumulative doses, up 11,030 on the previous week's 1,019,216 total. That's 2,026 doses fewer than the previous week's 13,056.

According to the figures released today, 74% of 18-24-year-olds in Lincolnshire have received their first dose, while 76.2% of 25-29-year-olds have had theirs. The figures are up only slightly from last week's 73.5% and 75.3% respectively.

Elsewhere, changes to the government's travel list will see fully-vaccinated passengers from France no longer having to isolate, alongside several other EU countries.

The new rules, which come in from 4am on Sunday, August 8, will see Austria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia move to green list on the government's traffic light system.

Meanwhile, Bahrain, India, Qatar and UAE will move to the amber list from the red list. And Georgia, Mayotte, Mexico and Reunion will move to the red list.

New figures have shown that the number of COVID-19 app alerts fell by 43% in England and Wales in the last week of July, official statistics show. Nearly 396,000 people were pinged, compared with the previous week's 690,129.

The number of people testing positive for COVID-19 in England has dropped by 39% according to the latest Test and Trace figures.

In the week to July 28, a total of 189,232 people tested positive for the virus in England.

Further data from the Office for National Statistics have revealed around 945,000 in the UK have experienced long COVID in the four weeks to July 4.

Around 380,000 people in the UK have experienced symptoms of long COVID for at least a year, the ONS has said.

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Thursday, August 5

12,927 in North Lincolnshire (up 105)

305 from North Lincolnshire (no change)

43 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

465 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (no change)

5,952,756 UK cases, 130,000 deaths