Rutland has recorded its first death of someone with Covid-19 in about a week.

The increase of one to 28 since the start of the pandemic came as the official death toll increased by a record 1,610 yesterday to 91,470.

In Rutland, this means about one-in-1400 has died with the virus since the pandemic started.

However, the number of new UK cases appears on a downward trend with national cases on Tuesday increasing by 33,355 to 3,466,849 since the pandemic started.

Rutland recorded 12 cases yesterday, putting it on 1006 cases. This gives a rate 2519.6 cases per 100,000, meaning about one-in-40 has caught the virus since the pandemic started.

The county's seven day rate however increased yesterday from 235.5 per 100,000 to 242.9 per 100,000 as the number of cases over the past week increased from 94 to 97.

But numbers fluctuate over the weekend, 106 cases had been reported over the previous seven days.

Even so, the county's seven day rate is less than half of the England average of 506.5 cases per 100,000.

Meanwhile, nearby South Kesteven recorded further declines in the number of daily cases and no deaths.

South Kesteven recorded 42 cases yesterday compared with 78 on Monday. This gives a grand total of 5316 cases since the start of the pandemic, equivalent to about one-in-30 of the district's population.

The number of cases over the past week has fallen from 410 yesterday to 395 today, giving a current 7-day rate of 277.3 cases per 100,000 of population.

Last Monday, South Kesteven had a 7-day rate of 391.8 cases per 100,000.

The number of deaths today remained at 163, or 114.4 per 100,000, which means just over one-in-a-thousand have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.

Overall, the UK government's Covid-19 tracker recorded 266 new coronavirus cases and 23 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 208 new cases in Lincolnshire, 30 in North Lincolnshire and 28 in North East Lincolnshire.

On Tuesday, 16 deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, five in North East Lincolnshire and two in North Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

In national news, the UK now has the highest death rate from COVID-19 of any country in the world, the latest data has revealed.

An average of 935 daily deaths in the UK over the last week was the equivalent of more than 16 people in every million dying each day from coronavirus.

This is higher than Sweden, which has avoided national lockdowns, and New Zealand which closed its borders early in the pandemic.

The country of almost 5 million has recorded 25 deaths, the last in September, and at the weekend it staged a major outdoor pop concert attended by 20,000.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is self-isolating after being alerted by the UK's NHS COVID-19 app.

The West Suffolk MP said self-isolation was "perhaps the most important part of all the social distancing", urging others to do the same if contacted track and trace.

About one in 10 people across the UK tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies in December, roughly double the October figure, data has shown.

The Office for National Statistics suggest between 8% of people in Northern Ireland and 12% of people in England showed signs of past infection.