Rutland has recorded three deaths of someone with Covid-19 yesterday, the highest daily total for some time.

The increase to 31 since the start of the pandemic follows on from a death about a week ago.

It also came as the national total number of deaths yesterday rose by 1,820 to 93,290 – the highest number of deaths recorded since the pandemic started.

In Rutland, this means about one-in-1400 has died with the virus since the pandemic started.

However, the number of new UK cases appears on a downward trend with national cases on Wednesday increasing by 38,905 to 3,505,754

Rutland recorded 13 cases yesterday, putting it on 1019 cases. This gives a rate 2552.6 cases per 100,000, meaning about one-in-40 has caught the virus since the pandemic started.

The county's seven day rate declined yesterday to 237.9 cases per 100,000 from 242.9 per 100,000 as the number of cases over the past week decreased from 97 to 95.

But numbers fluctuate daily and over the weekend, 106 cases had been reported over the previous seven days.

Even so, Rutland's seven day rate is less than half of the England average of 479.3 cases per 100,000.

Nearby South Kesteven recorded more cases of Coronavirus yesterday, but it remains in third place as Lincolnshire's hotspot.

Official government figures yesterday reveal 348 new coronavirus cases and 17 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 277 new cases in Lincolnshire, 40 in North Lincolnshire and 31 in North East Lincolnshire.

Among the districts, South Kesteven recorded 65 cases compared with 42 yesterday and 78 on Monday.

This gives a grand total of 5381 cases since the start of the pandemic, equivalent to about one-in-25 of the district's population.

The number of cases over the past week has increased to 415 yesterday, compared with 395 on Tuesday and 410 on Monday. This gives a current 7-day rate of 291.4 cases per 100,000 of population.

Last Monday, South Kesteven had a 7-day rate of 391.8 cases per 100,000, so the number of fresh cases have dropped by a quarter since then.

The number of deaths today remained at 163, or 114.4 per 100,000, which means just over one-in-a-thousand have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.

On Wednesday, 14 deaths were registered in Lincolnshire, two in North East 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.

Nationally, it was reported the UK will need to look "very carefully" at new data from Israel which suggests protection provided by the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is lower than had been found in trials, the government's chief scientific adviser told Sky News.

Sir Patrick Vallance said the government would "just need to keep measuring the numbers" as the vaccine is rolled out across the UK.

Two hospital trusts are among the first in the country to begin offering a 24/7 COVID vaccination programme. The University Hospitals Birmingham and Nottinghamshire's Sherwood Forest Hospitals trusts have been chosen to pilot the round-the-clock jabs from Wednesday.