South Kesteven has recorded its first Covid-19 related fatality since early May.

Government figures over the weekend showed the district recorded one fatality, putting the total on 271 since the start of the pandemic.

This is just under one death for every 500 of population, which compared to the England average of just over one death per 500 of population.

The last recorded death in South Kesteven was Wednesday May 5- more than 12 weeks ago.

The last fatality priority to that was Tuesday March 25, showing South Kesteven has experienced just three deaths with Covid-19 in almost 16 weeks.

Meanwhile, 7-day Covid infection rate has continued its downward trend despite the district recording more than 100 cases over the weekend.

The latest numbers mean the district has seen a drop of almost two-fifths since last weekend, which is slightly less than the more than two-fifths drop recorded nationally.

The weekend's 103 cases compares with 91 last weekend and 117 the weekend before.

The 7-day case rate has dropped from Friday's 208.5 and the previous Friday's peak of 353.9 cases per 100,000 of population to 207.8 yesterday, though it still remains much higher than for much of the past few months.

Last Sunday, it stood at 336.3 and 230.3 cases per 100,000 the Sunday before that.

South Kesteven's 7-day case rate also remains well below the England average of 305.1 cases per 100,000, which also peaked at 540 the Friday ten days ago.

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 86,000 yesterday and 5.8 million over a week.

Overall, there have been 9397 cases in South Kesteven since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to about one for about 15 residents in the district.

Overall, new COVID-19 cases in Lincolnshire dropped by 10% last week (3,708 total), as quarantine rules have been lifted for fully-vaccinated travellers from the EU and US on Monday.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard over the weekend reported 747 new cases in Lincolnshire, 204 in North East Lincolnshire and 165 in North Lincolnshire.

NHS figures for deaths in Lincolnshire's hospitals are not updated over the weekend, however, government figures showed two further updates to their deaths data, bringing the total for the week to 12.

From Monday, a travel restrictions have been relaxed, which means that people from United States or the European Union who are fully vaccinated no longer have to self-isolate when arriving in the UK.

The aim is to allow family and friends to re-unite with loved ones abroad.

However, tougher rules remain in place in France due to concerns over a new "Beta" variant which is spreading across the country.

International cruise ships are also able to launch from today after 16 months off the water.

Plans for an amber watchlist of countries have come under criticism from MPs and travel bosses — with some saying it could make the rules too complicated or could cause bookings to collapse.

Network Rail meanwhile, said this morning that no COVID traces were found during testing at some of its railway stations in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Sunday, August 1

12,596 in North Lincolnshire (up 165)

2,218 deaths (up two)

1,631 from Lincolnshire (up one)

282 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)

43 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

462 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (no change)