The Covid-19 case rate in Rutland heading back down again, albeit slowly.

Since the weekend, numbers have bounced back somewhat following after the plunge in recorded cases which followed a spike caused by an outbreak at HMP Stocken.

Two weeks ago the prison outbreak of cases caused the county's 7-day case rate to exceed 500 cases per 100,000 of population- around three times what it was before.

Cases tumbled back to below what they were originally, but over the weekend they nearly doubled before heading back down again.

In the seven days to Tuesday, Rutland recorded 95 cases, compared with 96 on Monday and 98 on Sunday.

But last Thursday and Friday saw the county recorded 52 cases over 7 days- a quarter of the numbers two weeks ago.

Rutland now has a 7-day case rate of 237.9 cases per 100,000, almost double the England average of 122.7 cases per 100,000, which is maintaining a downward trend.

Yesterday, Rutland recorded five cases, putting it on 1502 in total, equivalent to almost one-in-25 of the county's population since the pandemic started.

The number of deaths increased by one yesterday. This puts the total of deaths with covid-19 at 58, meaning about one-in-700 of the county's population will have died after testing positive with the virus.

In Greater Lincolnshire, there were 136 new coronavirus cases and eight COVID-related deaths in recorded on Tuesday – down from 145 cases and 20 deaths this time last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 96 new cases in Lincolnshire, 21 in North East Lincolnshire and 19 in North Lincolnshire.

Among the districts, South Kesteven recorded 8 cases, putting it on 6716 (about one case in 25 residents) since the start of the pandemic.

However, over a week, the number of cases increased from 179 on Monday to 183 yesterday, compared with a recent low of 155 last Thursday.

The 7-day rate increased from 125.7 cases per 100,000 to 128.5 cases per 100,000, which compares to an England average of 122.7 cases per 100,000.

The number of deaths increased 2 to 248- about one-in-600 of South Kesteven's population.

Overall, there have been 136 new coronavirus cases and eight COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Tuesday — down from 145 cases and 20 deaths this time last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 96 new cases in Lincolnshire, 21 in North East Lincolnshire and 19 in North Lincolnshire.

On Tuesday, seven deaths were registered in Lincolnshire and one in North Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

On Tuesday, national cases increased by 8,489 to 4,134,639, deaths rose by 548 to 121,305 while COVID first jab numbers hit nearly 18 million.

This comes as Monday saw Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing his roadmap out of the third lockdown which will start with schools opening on March 8 and non-essential shops open by April 12.

Students in secondary schools will have to do two rapid flow COVID-19 tests a week when they return to school on March 8.

Home testing will occur twice weekly for secondary school pupils, though no testing has yet been planned for primary schools.

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, will announce details of his spring budget next week (March 3), where he is predicted to extend the furlough scheme until at least May.

In more national news, everybody has to "play their part" to meet the dates for England's lockdown to be eased, Matt Hancock has said.

But it is currently "too early" to say how long social distancing will be in place, the health secretary said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is optimistic that he will be able to remove all coronavirus restrictions in England by June 21 under his four-stage plan for lifting lockdown.

Under his roadmap for easing COVID measures, the prime minister hopes "all legal limits on social contact can be removed" under the last of those four stages, to come on June 21 at the earliest.