Ten cases in Rutland today has prompted a small drop in the county's 7-day infection rate- which still remains above the England average.

The ten cases compares with 20 positive tests recorded yesterday, but it shows Rutland's fluctuating rate is also declining slower than the national figure.

The current Rutland 7-day case rate is now 301.4 cases per 100,000 of population, compared with 303.9 yesterday, a peak of 313.1 yesterday and its recent low of 242.9 on Sunday.

Last Friday, the rate was 258 cases per 100,000 and it was 345.6 the Thursday before.

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

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 almost a fortnight ago, which has since fallen to 282.1 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 825,000 yesterday and 5.3M over a week.

Rutland has now recorded 2339 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 about ten days ago, the last recorded such death in England's smallest county was on Wednesday April 28. Before that it was Thursday March 25.

Meanwhile, there have been 2,943 new cases of coronavirus so far this week in Lincolnshire, as health bosses look for ways to bring Lincoln's numbers down, currently at the top of the UK infection rates.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard on Friday reported 464 new cases in Lincolnshire, 134 in North East Lincolnshire and 116 in North Lincolnshire. The figure is 14% up on the 2,592 cases by this time last week.

NHS figures have reported one further hospital deaths in Northern Lincolnshire and Goole hospitals trust on Friday, bringing the weekly tally across Greater Lincolnshire's hospitals to seven.

Government figures also showed one further update to their deaths data in North East Lincolnshire, bringing the total for the week also to seven.

Nationally, cases increased by 31,808 to 6,014,023 while deaths rose by 92 to a total of 130,178 on Friday.

England's R number – which represents how many people each infected person passes coronavirus on to – has fallen from 1.1-1.4 to 0.8-1.1.

The Office for National Statistics meanwhile, has estimated that around one-in-80 people in the UK tested positive in the week to July 31, down from one-in-70.

The ONS' chief executive has also said there is "clear evidence" of a decline in COVID cases and he expects that to continue for the next four to five weeks.

However, he added: "In four or five weeks' time, schools will go back, universities will reopen and people will start to go back to work, so I really don't think we're in a position to say we have reached the end of COVID."

Public Health England has said that vaccinations have prevented more than 66,900 hospitalisations in those aged 65 and over and between 57,600-62,700 deaths.