The Covid-19 seven-day case rate in Rutland has dropped substantially over the weekend.

The plunge follows figures from a second outbreak at HMP Stocken now falling out of the seven-day reporting period.

Rutland has recorded 55 cases in the week to yesterday, well down on the figures in the mid-high 90s last week but back to the figures in the low 50s during the week before.

On Thursday, Rutland MP Alicia Kearns said the prison was responsible for 60 per cent of county cases, leaving community transmission below the national average, as reported by Nub News.

An earlier outbreak caused recorded cases to multiply and two weeks ago, the county's 7-day case rate exceeded 500 cases per 100,000 of population- around three times what it was before- and among the worst in the country.

The second outbreak saw the county rate increase back to around 240 cases per 100,000- about twice the England average of 107.8 cases per 100,000. Now, Rutland's 7-day case rate is 137.8 cases per 100,000.

Over the weekend, Rutland recorded 13 cases, compared with 3 on Friday, and 7 each on Wednesday and Thursday, putting it on 1532 in total, equivalent to almost one-in-25 of the county's population since the pandemic started.

The number of deaths remained at 59 yesterday, an increase of 2 over the week. The 59 means about one-in-700 of the county's population will have died after testing positive with the virus.

Overall, Greater Lincolnshire recorded 278 new coronavirus cases and nine deaths over the weekend.

This means last week there were altogether 1,283 COVID cases and 35 deaths in Greater Lincolnshire, compared to 1,219 cases and 45 deaths the week before — a 5% rise in cases, but a 28% reduction in deaths.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 174 new cases in Lincolnshire across Saturday and Sunday, 58 in North Lincolnshire and 46 in North East Lincolnshire.

Among the districts, South Kesteven recorded 26 cases over the weekend and two deaths.

The seven day case rate fell from 132 cases per 100,000 to 125.7 as the number of cases over a week dropped from 188 in the week to Friday to 179 in the week ending Sunday.

This compares with an England average 7 day case rate of 107.8 cases per 100,000, which is also on a downward trend.

Altogether, South Kesteven has recorded 6813 cases, almost one for every 20 residents.

The number of deaths is now 152, about one-in-600 residents.

Overall, by the end of Sunday, seven deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, one in North Lincolnshire and one in North East Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

NHS England reported three new local hospital deaths at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust and one at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust. This means 15 hospital deaths were recorded last week, down from 26 the week before. 111 deaths occurred in hospitals in February, a decrease from 258 in January.

The weekend saw national cases increase to 4,176,554, deaths rose to 122,849, while coronavirus first jabs surpassed 20 million.

Over the weekend, a coronavirus "variant of concern" first detected in Brazil was found in the UK. Three cases have been detected in England and separately three in Scotland.

In England, officials are still trying to track down one of those who tested positive for the new variant.

A huge boost in spending on the UK's COVID-19 vaccine programme will be announced by the chancellor in the Budget on Wednesday.

Rishi Sunak will pledge a further £1.65 billion for jabs, a cash injection hailed by the Treasury as a "shot in the arm" for the vaccine rollout.