Rutland has recorded its first Covid-related death in about 5 weeks.

The fatality comes as the county also recorded a further slight rise in positive tests as testing increases nationally.

Three cases were recorded today, giving the county a grand total of 1660 cases- about one for every 25 residents since the pandemic started.

The 7-day case rate for Rutland is now 27.6 cases per 100,000, which compares with the England average of 24.8.

This is well down on the peak earlier this year, which reached into the 400s for cases per 100,000 of population.

The number of deaths at 62, amounts to about one fatality in 700 residents, which compares to the England average of one-in-500.

Meanwhile in Lincolnshire, just five cases of Covid-19 were recorded in South Kesteven, fuelling a further decline its seven day infection rate.

Over the past week, the district has recorded 23 cases, compared with 50 in the week to last Wednesday and 72 in the week before that.

This gives South Kesteven a 7-day infection rate of 16.1 cases per 100,000, which is well below the England average of 23.

This is the lowest since last year and less than a tenth of figures earlier in the year when at times it exceeded 400 cases per 100,000.

Overall, South Kesteven has seen 7534 recorded cases since the start of the pandemic- which is about one for every 20 residents.

The number of deaths has remained at 266 for about three weeks. This means that around one-in-600 residents have died within 28 days of a positive test since the pandemic started, which compares with an England average of one-in-500.

Overall, there have been 56 new coronavirus cases and two COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday — compared to 51 cases and two deaths this time last week.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 30 cases in North Lincolnshire, 22 in Lincolnshire and four in North East Lincolnshire.

On Wednesday, two deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, none in North East Lincolnshire but -1 in North Lincolnshire. Fluctuations in data can occur for a variety of reasons including corrected data, misdiagnoses or wrong addresses. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

On Wednesday, national cases increased by 2,166 to 4,411,797, while deaths rose by 29 to 127,480.

In national news, the NHS app will be used as a COVID passport for Britons to travel abroad this summer, which will show their vaccination and testing status.

The UK will find out "in the next couple of weeks" the countries they will be able to visit without having to quarantine, with plans for a "traffic light system" which will be used in order to categorise countries safe to travel to.

A single dose of a coronavirus vaccine can reduce household transmission of the virus by up to half, a study shows.

Those given a first dose of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines – and who became infected three weeks later – were between 38% and 49% less likely to pass the virus on than unvaccinated people, PHE found.

During a government briefing on Wednesday, health secretary Matt Hancock announced that the UK had secured 60 million additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine ahead of a planned booster shot programme later this year.

He praised the number of people which had now received their first dose, and outlined new research which showed that as well as reducing the chance of catching COVID-19 by two-thirds in general, one dose also reduced the chance of inter-household transmission by 50%, the chance of needing hospital by four fifths and the chance of dying by 85%.

Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, said his sense was that "probably we are at or close to the bottom, at the moment in terms of this level of disease in the UK".

He said a reduction of coronavirus in the latest data was down to people following lockdown, with the vaccine helping "in the latter stages".