Rutland recorded four cases of Covid-19 yesterday and no deaths.

However, the county's 7-day case rate increased to 15 cases per 100,000, based on 6 cases, up from 12.5 on Wednesday, based on 5 cases.

This rate is one-fifth rate of the England average of 75.2, and is higher than the 10 rate of last Thursday.

However, the numbers concerned are small, with Rutland recording 6 cases in the week to today, 4 in the week to last Thursday and 2 in the week to last Friday- the lowest since last summer.

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 1713 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 is now officially 65, the same as Wednesday- 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.

Meanwhile, in Lincolnshire, the 7-day Covid-19 infection rate in South Kesteven has increased to three times what it was early last week.

Seven cases were recorded yesterday giving a total of 45 over the past week, compared 17 cases in the week to last Thursday and 12 in the week to last Tuesday.

This compares with 9 cases last Thursday and two cases the Thursday before that.

Yesterday's 7-day case rate is now 31.6 cases per 100,000 compared with the low of 8.4 cases per 100 last Tuesday and 11.9 cases per 100,000 people last Thursday.

South Kesteven now has a recorded 7735 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 reported deaths remains at 270, following an 'increase' by 3 yesterday due to changes in how the figures were calculated, rather than any actual deaths.

Rutland similarly increased its deaths tally by three after not recording a single death since late April, again suggesting statistical revisions are the cause.

Nationally, there were 19 deaths recorded on Thursday, giving a grand total of 127,945 since the start of the pandemic. This amounts to 78 over the week, an increase of 23 fatalities or 41.8 per cent over the week before.

The number of recorded cases yesterday increased by 11,007 to 4,600,623. This amounts to 58,830 over the past week, an increase of 14,822 (33.7%) over the week before.

Across the UK, this amounts to a 7-day rate of 75 per 100,000 people.

The figures come amid a large increase in testing, which amounted to 1.1 million new tests conducted on Wednesday, the latest figures available on the government's UK Covid 19 tracker.