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Two South Lincolnshire districts continue to have among the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the county and England.

According to the government’s coronavirus dashboard, Boston is still fifth highest with a seven-day infection rate of 151.1 per 100,000, while South Holland sits 11th at 143.1.

Lincolnshire’s health bosses, however, say that numbers are falling and their most up-to-date figures show lower infection rates of 114 and 137.9.

“That has come down from more than 200 just a couple of weeks ago,” said Andy Fox, assistant director of public health at Lincolnshire County Council.

“But the issue is that they’re probably not dropping down as fast as other areas.”

He said the rest of the county was doing well, with the highest districts just under the national average, while the lowest were far lower.

The current theory is that, with much of the two districts’ population working in employment areas with low income or low hours such as agency work, farming and factories, some may fear taking time off work to self-isolate for financial reasons. For instance, more than a quarter of South Holland is employed in food manufacturing.

Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rates from Feb 26 to Mar 8. | Data: Gov UK / Table: James Mayer for The Lincolnite

A chart showing the 7-day infection rates for Boston, which currently sits fifth highest in England.

“We’ve had fantastic experience working with the big employers in these areas, but there may be all sorts of reasons why some people are not able or not financially not able to take a test and to isolate because they’d be worried about losing a job or not getting their agency work back,” Andy Fox added.

Conversations are ongoing with employers and with the government to see if there is any extra support that can be given, however, no details on this have yet been confirmed.

Mr Fox added that people should keep in mind that “at times in the pandemic they have been the lowest in the county.

“Most areas have been both lowest and highest interestingly, so that just goes to show that COVID is very variable in the way it transmits and interacts with different areas of Lincolnshire,” he said.

New NHS text alerts began on Tuesday to invite people to book a slot for their life-saving COVID jab, including across Greater Lincolnshire.

Almost 400,000 people aged 55 and over, as well as 40,000 unpaid carers, will be the first to get the text alerts nationally as part of the NHS’ biggest ever vaccination programme.

This comes after it was announced that people aged 56 to 59 in the East Midlands, including in Greater Lincolnshire, are being invited to book their vaccination.

The messages will include a web link for those eligible to click and reserve an appointment at one of more than 300 large-scale vaccination centres, including at Lincolnshire Showground, or at pharmacies across England.

The texts will arrive in advance of the standard letter. This means if the trial is successful it could enable the NHS to react faster to changing vaccine supplies and be able to fill appointments quickly.

Reminders will then be sent two to three weeks after the original alert. People will also continue to receive letters as well as the text alert. Some GP-led and hospital vaccination services, which operate their own booking systems, are already using texts for invites.

If people cannot or would prefer not to travel to a vaccination centre or pharmacy-led site, they can choose to wait to be invited by a local GP-led service. NHS teams are also visiting those who are housebound and cannot travel to a vaccination service.

However, people are being warned against scammers trying to collect personal details from people. The real text message will be sent using the government’s secure Notify service and will show as being sent from ‘NHSvaccine’. The NHS will also never ask for payment or banking details.

NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis, said: “Thanks to careful planning and the huge efforts of NHS staff we have vaccinated more than 18 million people in England, which is a remarkable achievement.

“The NHS vaccination programme, the biggest in health service history, continues to go from strength to strength and we are now building on that momentum by trialling a quick and easy service that will hopefully make it more convenient for people to book their life saving jab.

“I had my vaccine this week – it was simple, quick and painless – and I would encourage others who have not yet taken up the offer to come forward and receive the jab.”

Over the weekend and on Monday, over 1.7 million people aged 56 and over were invited to book their vaccine nationally. Saturday was the busiest day for the booking service with more than half a million appointments confirmed.

A local family business is preparing to open another Greek takeaway after leasing a new premises in Birchwood.

The Papadopoulos family moved to Lincoln around 10 years ago before purchasing The Plough pub in Nettleham in 2015, from where they serve food including Greek cuisine.

They also own the Greek2Me takeaway next door and the family will open a second in a unit formerly occupied by an Indian takeaway at the Birchwood Shopping Centre by the end of April. It will serve Lincoln, Skellingthorpe and other surrounding villages.

Greek2Me has taken over a premises formerly occupied by an Indian takeaway at the Birchwood Shopping Centre.

The Greek2Me business was born after the family from Rhodes moved to Lincoln.

Christos and Joanne Papadopoulos had worked as servers at Carluccio’s in Lincoln and wanted to bring their own authentic Greek food to the city.

Spryos Papadopoulos, who manages the Nettleham takeaway, started working in the food industry around two years ago and has been helping his parents alongside his brother George.

They also previously owned a premises at Burton Waters, although this is still in the family and owned by another relative and now called Greek House.

Inside Greek2Me’s new premises in Birchwood.

Spryos told The Lincolnite: “We’ve had a lot of people asking us if can deliver around the North Hykeham and Birchwood area and the new takeaway will hopefully open us up to the rest of Lincoln.

“In the future we are also hoping to open other takeaways elsewhere in the county or even away from Lincolnshire.

“It feels amazing that we will be opening a new takeaway and we’ve had really good feedback from people on Facebook.

“We will be bringing good quality food to make people happy and give them a new experience.”

The new takeaway will initially create 2-3 new jobs, with a scope for more in the future.