Rutland has recorded 12 Covid-19 cases today, compared with 17 last Monday.

But how the numbers are calculated, the figures presented a small blip upwards in a general downward trend.

Over the week, in line with the national picture, the 7-day rate has dropped by around a third or more in the past week.

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

Today's 12 positive tests compares with 43 over the weekend, 17 last Monday and 18 the Monday before.

The 7-day infection rate has increased from 242.9 cases per 100,000 yesterday to 248 today, compared with 350.6 last Monday, last Sunday's peak of 388.2, and 235.4 the Monday 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 ten days ago, which has since fallen to 296.6 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 282 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-11.

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 recorded 58 cases of Covid today, reversing the recent declines of its 7-day infection rate.

The district returned to recording no more deaths, after the first fatality in nearly three months was recorded at the weekend.

Today's 58 cases compares with 103 over the weekend and 55 on Friday, plus 35 last Monday and 76 the Monday before.

The 7-day rate for South Kesteven is now 215.6 cases per 100,000, compared with 207.8 yesterday and 208.5 on Friday.

Last Monday it stood at 301.9 after peaking at 353.9 the Friday before than and was at 259.8 cases per 100,000 the Monday before then.

This compares with the England average of 296.6, which has fallen from 305.1 yesterday, 351.8 on Friday and its recent of 540 the Friday before.

The total number of deaths recorded within 28 days of a positive covid test is at 271, which is just under one death for every 500 of population.

The last recorded death prior to the weekend 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.

The figures come amid much testing, typically a million people a day and around 7 million a week, though in the past week or so testing has now dropped to 86,000 yesterday and 5.8 million over a week.

Overall, there have been 9455 cases in South Kesteven since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to about one for about 15 residents in the district, which compares to the England average of one-in-11.

Meanwhile, new updates have been made to the government's NHS COVID-19 app on Monday, as 524 new cases of coronavirus are confirmed in Greater Lincolnshire.

The government said this will "result in fewer contacts being advised to self isolate following close contact with a positive case".

That's because instead of looking for close contacts five days prior to a positive test, it will look back two days only.

NHS bosses said the update will not impact the app's sensitivity or risk threshold, and will result in the same number of high-risk contacts being advised to self-isolate.

Almost 700,000 people were told by the app last week to self-isolate, which caused staffing disruption across the retail, manufacturing and hospitality sectors.

In other news today, the government's COVID-19 dashboard on Monday reported 364 new cases in Lincolnshire, 102 in North East Lincolnshire and 58 in North Lincolnshire.

NHS figures for deaths in Lincolnshire's hospitals showed one further death at a United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust facility. 

Government figures, however, showed no further updates to their deaths data.

Nationally cases increased by 21,952 to 5,902,354, while deaths rose by 24 to 129,743.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid said:  "We want to reduce the disruption that self-isolation can cause for people and businesses, while ensuring we're protecting those most at risk from this virus.

"This update to the NHS COVID-19 app will help ensure that we are striking the right balance.

"It's so important that people isolate when asked to do so in order to stop the spread of the virus and protect their communities."

The update however comes one day too late, as earlier on Monday councillors and members of the public who attended a City of Lincoln Council meeting last week have been told to take a COVID test after a positive case was confirmed.

The authority said it will revert to using Zoom for this week's council meetings, with face-to-face meetings to resume next week.

It is understood several people who attended last Tuesday's Full Council meeting (July 27), though not all, have been pinged by the NHS COVID-19 app — however, the council did not confirm how many.

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

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government wants to take a "balanced approach" to travel.

Speaking during a visit to Stevenage, he responded to questions about a potential "amber watchlist" which has come under criticism from opposition and tourism bosses who say it could be too complicated.

"I understand people care very much about their holidays, people want to go abroad," he said, but added COVID was "still dangerous" and that there was a need to "try and stop variants" from entering the country.

Elsewhere, there are reports that 17 extra countries could be added to the green travel list this week.

PC agency, a travel consultancy, analysed data to say Germany, Canada, Austria, Romania, Poland, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia could be added due to low infection rates and high vaccination uptakes.

The Joint Biosecurity Centre is due to decide later this week which countries will go on which list.