South Kesteven has recorded fewer Covid-19 cases again today, with the 7-day rare dropping a quarter since Friday.

Nationally, a slump of new cases has also been recorded, though the number of fatalities recorded today at 131 was the highest since March.

South Kesteven continues to have not recorded a death related to Covid 19 in almost 3 months.

Today's 35 cases was the same as yesterday, but well down on the 91 recorded over the weekend, plus the 49 positive tests recorded last Tuesday and the 60 recorded the Tuesday before.

The 7-day case rate has dropped from Friday's peak of 353.9 cases per 100,000 of population to 336.3 yesterday, 301.9 yesterday and 271.7 today, though it still remains among its highest in months.

Last Tuesday, it stood at 300.5 and 173.4 cases per 100,000 the Tuesday before that.

However, despite the increases, it remains well below the England average of 447.6 cases per 100,000, which peaked at 540 on Friday, and was 473.5 a week ago and 328.9 the Tuesday before that.

The figures come amid much testing, typically a million people a day and around 7 million in the past week, thought they have now dropped a little to 810,000 and 6.2million.

Overall, there have been 9140 cases in South Kesteven since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to about one for about 16 residents in the district.

South Kesteven hasn't recorded a Covid-19 related death since Wednesday May 5.

The last fatality priority to that was Tuesday March 25, showing South Kesteven has experienced just two deaths with Covid-19 in more than 15 weeks.

The overall total remains at 270, about one for each 600 of the population, compared to the England average of one-in-500.

Overall, there have been 370 new cases of coronavirus confirmed on Tuesday in Lincolnshire, as people are urged to remain cautious despite falling case numbers.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard on Tuesday reported 260 new cases in Lincolnshire, 57 in North East Lincolnshire and 53 in North Lincolnshire. The figure is 41% lower than last Tuesday's 626 cases.

NHS figures have reported two further hospital deaths in Northern Lincolnshire and Goole hospitals trust.

Government figures, meanwhile, showed three further updates to their deaths data for Lincolnshire, North and North East Lincolnshire residents. Nationally on Tuesday, cases increased by 23,511 to 5,745,526 while deaths rose by 131 to 129,303. Lincolnshire's coronavirus numbers are low, and suggest natural vaccine immunity could be increasing, health bosses have said. But they warned there was a long way to go, and encouraged students and young people to get the vaccine. According to the latest government report, despite infection rates continuing to rise, case numbers are lower than previously and the region's authorities have mostly moved down the national tables for the past seven days. North East Lincolnshire has remained sixth highest across England for new COVID cases, however, its infection rate has decreased from 960.7 last week to 908.7 this week. In Lincolnshire, Boston and Lincoln remain top of the table with infection rates of 409 and 397.8 respectively. Both have, however, dropped down the table from 163rd to 226th in Boston and 146th to 240th in Lincoln. Nationally, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has continued to urge caution after cases fell for the sixth day in a row. "I've noticed, obviously, that we're six days into some better figures. But it's very very important that we don't allow ourselves to run away with premature conclusions about this," he said. "Step 4 of the opening-up only took place a few days ago. People have got to remain very cautious, and that remains the approach of the government."

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday, July 27

78,956 cases (up 370) 51,512 in Lincolnshire (up 260)

12,194 in North Lincolnshire (up 56)

15,250 in North East Lincolnshire (up 88) 2,209 deaths (up three) 1,629 from Lincolnshire (up one)

304 from North Lincolnshire (up one)

276 from North East Lincolnshire (up one) of which 1,323 hospital deaths (up two) 820 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up one)

43 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)

459 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up two)

5,745,526 UK cases, 129,303 deaths