60 Lincolnshire schools with COVID-19 cases as lockdown looms

Health bosses are in discussions with the government about a new COVID-19 testing centre in Skegness, where infection rates are very high, but the exact location has not been confirmed.

Lincolnshire County Council’s director of public health Professor Derek Ward, however, said it was hoped to be around the size of the Lincolnshire Showground testing site.

East Lindsey has the fourth highest infection rate in the country. The government’s most recent seven-day data for the area showed a rate of 443.8 per 100,000 of the population, down from 470.6 the previous day.

Southern neighbour’s Boston have seen their figures drop from 439.9 to 430.4 (number 8 nationally), while along the coast to the north saw North East Lincolnshire decrease from 421.2 to 394.8.

This compares with an England average of 209.1, down from 218.4.

Skegness already has a mobile testing site, but with the new tier 3 designation for the whole of Lincolnshire, areas with high cases will get a six-week testing capacity boost.

Professor Ward said: “ We were in conversations about increasing our testing capacity anyway, we’ve been good at getting in our requests early and we’ve had pretty good coverage in our mobile testing units.

“We moved one of those into Skegness considering what we were seeing in the district, and on the back of that we had conversations with the government about […] can we actually get a bigger testing facility more permanently whilst we’re still in the pandemic in Skegness?”

He added: “That is progressing well, so I can’t say it’s definitely going to happen, but it’s only progressing well.”

Grantham and Gainsborough recently started work on new testing sites due to open this month and another has been announced in Boston.

They will join two others at the Lincolnshire Showground and the University of Lincoln, meaning the county will have eight permanent sites.

Around 25,000 tests have been carried out every week across the county. The last seven days showed an 8.4% positivity rate — around 2,100 cases.

It’s down from a 12% positivity rate at the peak of the latest wave between November 17-19.

A police officer has been sacked for using the barcode for 7p carrots to buy 12 Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

PC Simon Read bought the doughnuts while on duty for Cambridgeshire Police in a Tesco Extra store in Wisbech, near the Lincolnshire border, on February 10.

He had been accused of scanning a 7p carrot barcode to pay for 12 Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which cost £9.95.

He was called for a disciplinary hearing for this and has been sacked for gross misconduct as a result.

The disciplinary panel found that PC Read had in fact scanned the wrong barcode on purpose, despite his claims that it was “an honest mistake”.

This is a claim that was described as “lacking in credibility” by those conducting the hearing.

CCTV footage caught PC Read red handed, as it showed him look at the screen to select his payment method and put the carrots on the doughnuts box, the same side as its barcode.

PC Read’s lawyer, Carolina Bracken, told the panel that the officer has had prank calls since the incident from people offering him doughnuts.

He was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour within the force at the two day hearing in Peterborough, which concluded on Thursday.

It means that Read has been relieved of his duties after joining the Cambridgeshire force in January.

Deputy Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Police, Jane Gyford, said: “The public should be able to trust that police officers in their duty will act with honesty and integrity at all times.

“We expect the highest standards from our officers, but PC Read’s conduct has been found to have fallen short of our expectations.

“I hope this outcome offers reassurance to our communities that our officers and staff will be held to account for their actions.”

PC Read has a right to appeal the panel’s decision, but it is unclear if he will go ahead with it.

There have been 476 new coronavirus cases and 24 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Thursday.

The government’s COVID-19 dashboard recorded 346 new cases in Lincolnshire, 69 in North East Lincolnshire and 61 in North Lincolnshire.

This takes the total cases since the pandemic started to over 25,000 in Greater Lincolnshire.

Some 20 deaths were registered on Thursday in Lincolnshire, with three 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.

NHS England reported 11 new local hospital deaths on Thursday, including nine at United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust and two at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust. Greater Lincolnshire hospital deaths have now hit 500 since the pandemic began.

On Thursday, national cases increased by 17,555 to 1,574,562 while deaths rose by 498 to 57,031.

Lincolnshire’s coronavirus cases up to November 26 (November 25 incomplete).

Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire, will be put into the toughest COVID-19 restrictions (tier 3) from December 2.

Tier 3 means the county has one of the highest infection rates in England. It allows all shops to open, but pubs and restaurants can only stay open for takeaway services, similar to the current restrictions now.

Lincolnshire leaders said they are “disappointed” and “frankly devastated” that the whole of Greater Lincolnshire will be placed into the tier 3 restrictions when it comes out of lockdown.

South Holland and South Kesteven are the only two districts that have infection rates lower than the national average of 218.4 per 100,000 of the population.

Lincolnshire’s most recent seven-day data. Data: UK Gov

Here is what you need to know about Lincolnshire’s transition to tier 3.

In national news, it has been reported that just 1% of the population (709,748) will be in tier 1, 32.2 million (57%) in tier 2 and 23.2 million (41%) in tier 3. The system will be reviewed on December 16 at the earliest.

Boris Johnson said in Thursday’s government press briefing: “The virus is still present and the faster we can drive it down, the faster we can lift restrictions.”