Rutland has recorded a further fall in its 7-day case rate, in contrast to the national situation.

England's smallest county recorded 21 cases yesterday compared with 17 on Wednesday, 4 last Thursday and 8 the Thursday before.

Once again, no deaths were recorded.

The 7-day rate has been relatively stable recently, and currently stands at 175.3 cases per 100,000, compared with 182.8 on Wednesday and 190.3 on Tuesday.

Last Thursday, it was at 205.5, and it was at 117.7 cases per 100,000 of population on the Thursday before that.

Whilst the Rutland figure has fluctuated a little, the England average has steadily risen in recent weeks and stands much higher at 350.3 cases per 100,000. A week ago it was at 263.9 cases per 100,000.

However, there has been a large increase in testing recently, with 1.2 million tests on Wednesday and more than 7.1 million over the past week.

Rutland has now recorded 1964 cases recorded since the start of the pandemic- about one case for every 22 residents. This compares with the England average of almost one-in-15.

The number of deaths remains at 65, the same as yesterday- about one for every 600 residents, which compares with the national average of one-in-500 residents.

South Kesteven recorded 61 cases of Covid-19 yesterday but the district has now gone more than ten weeks without a death.

The total remains at 270, with the last fatality related to the virus in the district being on 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.

However, the 7-day case rate in South Kesteven has continued rising, with it almost doubling over the past week.

The district recorded 61 people testing positive on Thursday compared with 42 on Wednesday, 60 on Monday and 78 over over the weekend.

Thursday's 61 positive tests compares with 33 last Thursday and 29 the Thursday before.

Overall, there have been 8459 recorded cases in South Kesteven since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to about one for about 18 residents in the district.

The 7-day rate is now 201.5 cases per 100,000- meaning one-in-500 will have tested positive with the virus over the past week- compared 113.7 last Thursday and 52 cases per 100,000 the Thursday before- a quarter of the current rate.

However, despite the rate almost doubling over the past week, and almost quadrupling in a fortnight, it remains almost half the England average of 350.3 cases per 100,000.

The England average 7-day rate has steadily risen in recent weeks, while the South Kesteven figure has tended to fluctuate at a much reduced level before creeping upwards.

Government figures yesterday reported 713 cases across the whole of Greater Lincolnshire with 371 of those in Lincolnshire, 243 in North East Lincolnshire and 99 in North Lincolnshire.

The UK recorded 48,553 cases yesterday – the highest daily number since January, with 63 deaths nationally.

Both the government and NHS figures also recorded two further deaths each – one in Lincolnshire and one in Northern Lincolnshire.