The Covid-19 seven-day case rate in Rutland has increased further, with it also remaining at twice the national average.

Since the weekend, numbers have bounced back again following a renewed outbreak at HMP Stocken.

Yesterday, Rutland MP Alicia Kearns said the prison was responsible for 60 per cent of county cases, leaving community transmission below the national average, as reported by Nub News.

An earlier outbreak caused recorded cases to multiply and two weeks ago, the county's 7-day case rate exceeded 500 cases per 100,000 of population- around three times what it was before- and among the worst in the country.

Cases tumbled back to below what they were originally, but over last weekend they nearly doubled with almost 100 cases being recorded every seven days.

In the seven days to yesterday, Rutland recorded 99 cases, compared with 96 on Wednesday, 95 on Tuesday, 96 on Monday and 98 on Sunday.

But last Thursday and Friday saw the county record 52 cases over 7 days- a quarter of the numbers two weeks ago.

Rutland now has a 7-day case rate of 248 cases per 100,000, double the England average of 118.3 cases per 100,000, which is maintaining a downward trend.

Yesterday, Rutland recorded 7 cases, the same as Wednesday, putting it on 1516 in total, equivalent to almost one-in-25 of the county's population since the pandemic started.

The number of deaths remained at 59 yesterday, an increase of 7 over the week. This puts the total of deaths with covid-19 at 59, meaning about one-in-700 of the county's population will have died after testing positive with the virus.

In Lincolnshire, no deaths with Coronavirus were recorded in South Kesteven yesterday.

Official government figures also record 27 cases in the district.

It puts the district on 250 deaths in total, equivalent to 250 deaths since the pandemic started, about one for each 600 residents.

The number of cases increased 27 in South Kesteven yesterday, meaning 6777 have been registered as having the virus, about one-in-20 of the district's population.

The number of cases recorded over the past week fell from 187 in the week to Wednesday to 184 in the week to Thursday.

This now gives the district a 7-day infection rate of 129.2 cases per 100,000 in the week to yesterday, compared to the England average of 118.3 cases per 100,000.

Overall, there have been 263 new coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire on Thursday and three COVID-related deaths, compared to 195 cases and two deaths this time last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 204 new cases in Lincolnshire, 36 in North East Lincolnshire and 23 in North Lincolnshire.

On Thursday, two deaths was registered in Lincolnshire and one in North Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county. North Lincolnshire deaths have now hit 300.

On Thursday, national cases increased by 9,985 to 4,154,562 while deaths rose by 323 to 122,070. Some 18.6 million have had their first jab.

Nationally, the UK's COVID-19 alert level has been downgraded as the threat of the NHS being overwhelmed recedes.

The UK's chief medical officers said the alert level should move from 5 to 4 as the numbers of patients in hospital are "consistently declining and the threat of the NHS and other health services being overwhelmed within 21 days has receded".

Level 4 means transmission of COVID-19 is now "high or rising exponentially" compared with level 5, the highest level, where there was "a risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed".

Police have handed out nearly 70,000 fines to people for breaching COVID-19 lockdown rules since they came into force, with more than 6,000 issued in a single week, new data shows.

Figures published by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) on Thursday show that a total of 68,952 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) were issued by forces.

GCSEs and A-levels cancelled in England by the pandemic will be replaced by grades decided by teachers, the exams watchdog Ofqual has confirmed.

Schools can determine grades this summer by using a combination of mock exams, coursework and essays.

More surge testing will be rolled out in Ealing after additional cases of the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa were detected.

It is an extension of testing which was started in the west London borough earlier this month following the discovery of previous cases.