Rutland has recorded four cases of Covid-19 today, but again no deaths.

The county has not recorded a death for around 7 weeks, whilst cases numbers have fluctuated for several weeks.

According to the government's UK Covid-19 tracker, England's smallest county has recorded 5 cases in the past week, giving Rutland a7-day case rate of 12.5 cases per 100,000.

This represents a decline on the case rate of 15 in the week to yesterday and last Tuesday, but an increase on the low of 5 recorded on Friday, based on two cases in the week to Friday.

Rutland's 7-day case rate of 12.5 compares with the England average of 69.9, and increase from the 67.1 recorded yesterday and the 44.2 cases per 100,000 of population last Tuesday.

England's 7-day case rate has crept up in recent weeks, whilst in Rutland it has fluctuated at low levels, at one stage last week amongst the lowest in the country.

Rutland has now recorded 1704 cases recorded since the start of the pandemic- about one case for every 25 residents. This compares with the England average of almost one-in-15.

The number of deaths remains at 62- about one for every 600 residents, which compares with the national average of one-in-500 residents.

Rutland's last recorded death was on the last Wednesday of April, the only death with Covid-19 recorded in Rutland during April and so far in May and June.

The figures follow the government delaying 'Freedom Day' amid growing concerns of rising case numbers, particularly of the variety that originated in India.

Meanwhile, in Lincolnshire, the 7-day Covid-19 infection rate is spiking upwards in South Kesteven with the rate more than trebling in the past week.

After ten cases were recorded in the district today, this gave South Kesteven it's highest rate in almost two months.

However, the district once again did not record any deaths today, with South Kesteven going more than three weeks with a death and recording two in two months.

Nationally, ten deaths with Covid were reported today, compared with 13 last week, while recorded case numbers increased from 6048 last Tuesday to 7673 today.

Some 63 people across the UK have now died within 28 days of a positive test over the past week, a decrease of 9 or 12.5 per cent compared with the week before.

The figures come as Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday announced a delay in 'Freedom Day' by four weeks, though some restrictions, such as ending the limit of numbers at weddings were eased.

Today's ten cases compares with 5 last Monday, four yesterday and 14 over the weekend.

It means the case rate for the district have more than almost trebled since the 7-day infection rate reached a low of 8.4 cases per 100 last Tuesday.

The 7-day rate sharply increased from 14.7 on Friday to 23.9 cases per 100,000 on Monday, to 26 yesterday and 30.2 today, based on the district reporting 43 cases over 7 days.

South Kesteven now has a recorded 7719 cases since the start of the pandemic- about one for each 20 residents, which compares with the England average of one for each 15 residents.

The number of deaths remained at 267, as it has for three weeks. Before the last death, the district went almost six weeks without recording a fatality, making it two deaths in about the last two months in South Kesteven.

Nationally COVID cases increased by 7,673 to 4,581,006 while deaths rose by 10 to 127,917.

Today, it was also revealed more than 30 million people in the UK had now had their two doses of a COVID vaccine – around 57.3% of the population.

Downing Street has also confirmed it hopes to offer all over-18s in England their first dose by the end of this week.

Meanwhile, new analysis by Public Health England (PHE) has found two doses of a COVID vaccine are highly effective against hospitalisation from the Delta (Indian) variant.