Lincolnshire has been bucking the trend and increasing in COVID-19 cases over the past couple of weeks, with infection rates in some areas now double the national average.
South Holland is number five in the UK, with a 208.4 infection rate — more than double England’s 102.9 figure as a whole. It’s believed outbreaks among field and factory workers are pushing the numbers up, along with extra testing.
Four of the county’s seven districts saw an increase on the previous week’s infection rates, and Boston is now ranked 22 nationally.
However, the number of new cases in the county in February halved compared to January.
Andy Fox, Lincolnshire County Council’s assistant director of public health, said it was “important to be aware that we were far lower than other areas of the country just a few weeks ago”.
“So while other areas seem to have been in a steep decline, which has given them some momentum to go past where we are, a very shallow decline seems to have flattened out here.”
There were 5,412 coronavirus cases and 208 COVID-related deaths recorded in Greater Lincolnshire in February, half as many as January, which saw 10,667 cases and 426 deaths.
Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rates from Feb 22 to Mar 1. | Data: Gov UK / Table: James Mayer for The Lincolnite
He added: “It isn’t a big increase compared to the numbers we were looking at a few weeks ago, but when everywhere else is still decreasing, it makes Lincolnshire suddenly look worse.”
He pointed to figures in early January which saw infection rates in some areas reach more than 500 per 100,000 population at the time.
The main increase, according to the latest data, is among the working age groups, in particularly Mr Fox said, among those working in commercial premises in food production, warehousing and manufacturing.
Mr Fox could not say if it was a change in people’s behaviour or more COVID circulating.
Table showing Lincolnshire’s cases up to March 1. | Image: Gov.uk
However, he did note there had been a “notable jump” in testing in the county in the first two days of the half term and urged people to continue to do so.
In response to concerns over visitors to the coast during warmer weather over the weekend, Mr Fox urged people to remember the country was still in lockdown and that the law had not changed yet.
“If people suddenly jump to the kind of restrictions we’re expecting in April or May, if they say that “oh it’s coming up so I’ll just fast forward a little bit”, then we are likely to see numbers going up faster than the government are planning. and we really don’t want to delay any of these changes to the roadmap.”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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