Rutland's 7-day infection rate is firmly back on its way down, after a sharp peak, following last week's outbreak at Stocken Prison.

Official government figures yesterday show the county reporting 17 cases yesterday, with an overall total of 1385 cases since the start of the pandemic. This amounts to about one case per 30 residents.

Some 186 cases were reported in the 7 days to Friday (yesterday), compared to 194 in the 7 days to Thursday, 207 in the week to Wednesday. This contrasts with last Wednesday's 7 day rate of 68, 80 cases in the week to last Thursday and 92 in the week to last Friday.

This gives a 7-day rate of 465.9 cases per 100,000, meaning about one-in-200 Rutlanders will have picked up the virus over the past week.

On Wednesday, the 7-day rate was 518.4, among the worst in the country.

Rutland's record contrasts with virtually everywhere else in the UK, which is reporting a sharp decrease in new case numbers.

England's 7-day rate yesterday was 188.3 cases per 100,000, which compares with 257.6 last Friday, and 354.2 the Thursday before, as case numbers have halved in two weeks.

The number of deaths recorded in Rutland yesterday increased one to 51, to about one per 800 residents since the pandemic started.

Elsewhere, there have been 910 new coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire this week and 45 COVID-related deaths, as numbers fell week on week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard on Friday recorded 157 new cases in Lincolnshire, and 19 in North East Lincolnshire and 29 in North Lincolnshire.

Among the districts, South Kesteven, recorded 40 cases, compared with 21 cases on Thursday, 24 on Wednesday, 15 on Tuesday and 33 on Monday. This puts the district on 6,460 in total, equivalent to just over one-in-25 people in the district succumbing to the virus at some stage.

The 7-day rate has decreased from 240.1 cases per 100,000 last Friday to 182.6 cases per 100,000- a drop of about a quarter. The number of cases over the past week has fallen from 365 last week to 260 today.

South Kesteven recorded two deaths on Friday, after three on Thursday, three on Wednesday and six on Tuesday, putting the total on 233 fatalities since the start of the pandemic.

Altogether, about one-in-600 residents in the district have died after testing positive with the virus.

On Friday, four deaths were registered in Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

NHS England reported four new local hospital deaths, including three at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and one at Lincolnshire Community Health Service.

It means there have been 22 deaths in hospital this week.

The figures are a dramatic drop on last week, which saw 1,204 cases and 64 deaths, with 31 taking place in hospital.

On Friday, national cases increased by 15,144 to 4,013,799, deaths rose by 758 to 116,287 while COVID first jab numbers hit 14,012,224.

In other news, the R number for the UK has fallen below 1 for the first time since July, according to national reports, reaching levels of 0.7-0.9.

The latest data from the Office of National Statistics shows that the levels of the virus in all four nations of the UK are going down with, on average, every 10 people infecting it passing on to between seven to nine more.

The data suggests one in 80 people in England has the virus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to outline the next plans for easing restrictions on February 22.