The downward trend in Covid 19 numbers in Rutland continues, reflecting national trends.

Its means the rate has dropped by almost two fifths, similar to the national rate, which has dropped even more.

England's smallest county also continues to record no fatalities, after last weekend saw its first death since April.

The weekend saw 43 positive tests compared with 29 last weekend and 42 the weekend before.

The 7-day infection has fallen from 258 cases per 100,000 to 242.9 yesterday, which also compares with last Sunday's peak of 388.2, and 202.9 cases per 100,000 the Sunday before.

Whilst the Rutland 7-day rate has fluctuated a little, the England average has steadily risen in recent weeks until last Friday's peak of 540 tes days ago, which has since fallen to 305.1 today.

However, there has been a large increase in testing recently, with around a million tests a day and 7 million over a past week, though in recent days it has fallen to 860,000 on Saturday and 5.8M over a week.

Rutland has now recorded 2270 cases recorded since the start of the pandemic- about one case for every 18 residents. This compares with the England average of about one-in-12.

The number of deaths is now 66, about one for every 600 residents, which compares with the national average of one-in-500 residents.

Prior to the latest fatality last weekend, the last recorded such death in England's smallest county was on Wednesday April 28. Before that it was Thursday March 25.

Meanwhile, in Lincolnshire, South Kesteven has recorded its first Covid-19 related fatality since early May.

Government figures over the weekend showed the district recorded one fatality, putting the total on 271 since the start of the pandemic.

This is just under one death for every 500 of population, which compared to the England average of just over one death per 500 of population.

The last recorded death in South Kesteven was Wednesday May 5- more than 12 weeks ago.

The last fatality priority to that was Tuesday March 25, showing South Kesteven has experienced just three deaths with Covid-19 in almost 16 weeks.

Meanwhile, 7-day Covid infection rate has continued its downward trend despite the district recording more than 100 cases over the weekend.

The latest numbers mean the district has seen a drop of almost two-fifths since last weekend, which is slightly less than the more than two-fifths drop recorded nationally.

The weekend's 103 cases compares with 91 last weekend and 117 the weekend before.

The 7-day case rate has dropped from Friday's 208.5 and the previous Friday's peak of 353.9 cases per 100,000 of population to 207.8 yesterday, though it still remains much higher than for much of the past few months.

Last Sunday, it stood at 336.3 and 230.3 cases per 100,000 the Sunday before that.

South Kesteven's 7-day case rate also remains well below the England average of 305.1 cases per 100,000, which also peaked at 540 the Friday ten days ago.

Overall, there have been 9397 cases in South Kesteven since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to about one for about 15 residents in the district.

Overall, new COVID-19 cases in Lincolnshire dropped by 10% last week (3,708 total), as quarantine rules have been lifted for fully-vaccinated travellers from the EU and US on Monday.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard over the weekend reported 747 new cases in Lincolnshire, 204 in North East Lincolnshire and 165 in North Lincolnshire.

From Monday, a travel restrictions have been relaxed, which means that people from United States or the European Union who are fully vaccinated no longer have to self-isolate when arriving in the UK.

The aim is to allow family and friends to re-unite with loved ones abroad.

However, tougher rules remain in place in France due to concerns over a new "Beta" variant which is spreading across the country.

International cruise ships are also able to launch from today after 16 months off the water.

Plans for an amber watchlist of countries have come under criticism from MPs and travel bosses — with some saying it could make the rules too complicated or could cause bookings to collapse.

Network Rail meanwhile, said this morning that no COVID traces were found during testing at some of its railway stations in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.