South Kesteven has recorded 78 Covid-19 cases today, keeping the district just above the England average.

It means that since the pandemic started, the district has recorded 10,089 positive tests - about one case for each 14 residents.

Today's 78 cases compares with 51 positive tests yesterday and 76 on Tuesday.

It also compares with 58 recorded last Thursday and 51 the Thursday before.

The number has further increased the district's 7-day infection rate to its highest in more than 2 weeks, and higher than the England average.

The 7-day rate for South Kesteven is now 303.7 cases per 100,000 population, compared 300.9 yesterday, 294.6 on Tuesday, 236.7 last Thursday and 226.1 the Thursday before.

This compares with the England average of 299.2 cases per 100,000, which has crept up from 296.6 yesterday, and a low of 282.1 on Friday.

The figures come amid much testing, currently running around 840,000 a day or 5.3 million over a week.

Overall, the 10,089 cases in South Kesteven since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to about one for about 14 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 last 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.

In Lincolnshire today, 427 cases were recorded compared with 406 yesterday, giving a grand total of 57,704 positive tests since the start of the pandemic.

The county has recorded 2732 cases over the past week, giving it a 7-day case rate of 356.5 cases per 100,000, which is higher than the England and South Kesteven averages.

The number of recorded deaths increased 4 to 1640.

Nationally, 94 deaths were recorded today, compared with 104 yesterday, with 615 recorded over the past week. This is an increase of 44 or 7.7% over the week before. The total number of UK deaths now stands at 130,701.

Today, 33,074 cases were recorded, compared with 29,612 cases yesterday. Some 199,206 cases were recorded over the past week, an increased of 15,800 or 8.6 per cent over the previous week.

The number of hospital admissions is recorded as 737, compared with 712 yesterday, amounting to 5369, a drop of 304 or 5.4 per cent over the past week.