South Kesteven has now gone 12 weeks without a Covid-19 related death.

Today's milestone comes as the district recorded 48 cases today, making the 7-day case rate drop nearly a third since its peak on Friday.

Nationally, the number of new cases rose a little today, after declining all week, but the 7-day case rate is still more than a third lower than a week ago.

Today's 48 positive tests in South Kesteven compares with 35 on Monday and Tuesday and 49 last Wednesday and 42 the Wednesday before.

The 7-day case rate has dropped from Friday's peak of 353.9 cases per 100,000 of population to 271.7 yesterday and 245 today, though it still remains among its highest in months.

Last Wednesday, it stood at 331.4 and 185.4 cases per 100,000 the Tuesday before that.

However, despite the increases, it remains well below the England average of 401.4 cases per 100,000, which also peaked at 540 on Friday, and was 510.9 a week ago and 341.5 the Wednesday 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 800,000 and 6.1million.

Overall, there have been 9188 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.

Nationally, the UK today recorded 27,734 new coronavirus cases and 91 more deaths.

The figures compare with 23,511 infections and 131 deaths reported on Tuesday, and 44,104 cases and 73 deaths this time last week.

However, despite the rise in cases, the seven-day average was 36.1% down from the previous week. The past week has seen 231,458 people testing positive with the virus, down 120,412 on the week before.

The number of deaths over the past 7 days is 498, an increase of 132 or 36.1 per cent on the week before.

Since the pandemic began, some 129,430 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive COVID test.