Rutland MP Alicia Kearns has come under fire over her defence of the Prime Minister's decision to delay 'Freedom Day' for four weeks.

The MP said on her Facebook page last night: "Just now, the Prime Minister announced that the remaining restrictions cannot be lifted as planned and hoped next Monday.

"There will be a four week delay to the end of social restrictions in England but with a review after two weeks where I hope we'll have seen progress."

Mrs Kearns continued: "The Government has been clear all along that we must follow the science and medical advice, and whilst we're all disappointed by the news today, we've all seen the impact of the DELTA variant and we must continue to follow medical advice.

"The facts are infection rates are doubling each week, the number of under 65s being hospitalised has greatly increased, and there is a two week delay in hospital admissions.

"The vaccination programme is speeding up. From tomorrow, anyone over the age of 23 can book their first dose. "

She added: "I know that when the Prime Minister says "one final heave", he means it. Our world-beating vaccination programme has made it possible to get this far, and I know that we will get to the end very, very soon."

The MP's comments come as the government's UK Covid 19 tracker showed the 7-day case rate in Rutland has trebled since Friday, from 5 cases per 100,000 to 15 cases per 100,000 in the 7 days to yesterday. The rate is based on extremely low figures, among the lowest in the country for Rutland.

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In the week to Friday, the government Covid-19 tracker said Rutland reported a low of 2 cases over the week. By Monday, it was six cases over the week. Yesterday the county recorded three cases and none were recorded over the weekend.

Similar 7-day rates have been reported over the past few weeks, with the figures less than a 20th of their peak earlier this year when the rate exceeded 400.

The last death from Covid 19 in Rutland was in late April, some 7 weeks ago, as Nub News reported here.

However, the England 7-day rate has increased to 67.1 cases per 100,000 yesterday (Monday), from 40.6 last Monday and 27.2 cases per 100,000 the Monday before.

Yesterday, three deaths were reported within 28 days of a positive test, though Monday figures do tend to be on the low side. Some 66 deaths with Covid were reported over the past week, an increase of 7 or 11.9 per cent over the week before.

Nub News has no hospital figures for Leicestershire, but the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust yesterday reported it was treating 5 patients out of more than 1100 beds, as reported here by Nub News .

Last week, the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust reported 'single figure' Covid patient numbers at the near 1000 hospital beds its hospitals have.

Among those reacting to the MP's comments, Mark Routen said: "Oh really are you just gullible and believe this or are you as normal just spouting the party line? Just for once do as you should and speak out against this madness put Rutland before your own interests. There is no reason at all to carry on with all this rubbish."

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Michael Cavani said: "So we wait for another 4 weeks because Johnson waited 3 weeks before closing the borders, all because he did not want to upset [Indian] PM Modi as he is so desperate for a trade deal."

Dan Husband said: "So the vaccine was a waste of time. It was meant to protect the NHS. Is the NHS struggling? The vulnerable and old have had their vaccine unless they decide not to have it so who's lives are we saving? They'll be another variant at some point what will we do then?"

The comments can be seen here.

The UK Government's Covid 19 tracker can be found here.