A further nine coronavirus deaths have been confirmed at hospitals in Greater Lincolnshire as fatalities in the north of the county pass 50.
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust saw the most fatalities with eight recorded at the region’s hospitals.
It means the number of deaths in northern Lincolnshire now stands at 52.
Meanwhile, United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust confirmed one patient had died after testing positive for COVID-19.
A spokesperson for ULHT said: “Sadly we can confirm that a further patient who was being cared for in one of our hospitals and had tested positive for COVID-19, has died.
“The patient was a 64 year old man who had underlying health conditions.
“His family has been informed and our thoughts and condolences are with them at this difficult and distressing time.”
The total number of deaths now stand at 138 in the county.
86 in Lincolnshire
52 in Northern Lincolnshire
Meanwhile, NHS England confirmed that 514 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 have died across the country.
Patients were aged between 31 and 100 years old, 16 of them had no known underlying health condition.
150 contact tracers will need to be trained in order to tackle the spread of coronavirus in Lincolnshire after lockdown.
Both new and current staff will be trained by Lincolnshire’s public health team to track down and isolate people who have come into contact with positive COVID-19 cases.
Tony McGinty, assistant director of public health at Lincolnshire County Council, said the county would need a bigger team to tackle the scale of the virus.
It comes as the government announced it will aim to train contact tracers within weeks in order to exit lockdown.
Tony McGinty, assistant director of public health at Lincolnshire County Council. Photo: The Lincolnite
Among those to be part of the tracing teams will be civil servants and council staff, such as environmental health officers.
Up to 150 tracers will need to be trained in Lincolnshire in order to track down individual cases.
Mr McGinty said the move was an indication that the government was taking the next review of lockdown seriously.
“The indication is of them moving back to a system that we had before lockdown where we traced individual cases,” he said.
“It’s a normal step down from the lockdown measures.”
He added that the purpose of the contact tracers combined with increased testing was to deal with the spread of the virus after the restrictions are relaxed.
“What is going to happen is the virus will continue to spread and we need these measures in place to find those cases and to contain the spread,” said Mr McGinty.
Lincolnshire Showground could become the county’s single testing facility.
“The end of lockdown will not be the end of our experience with COVID-19.”
Along with contact tracing teams, the county will need an increase in testing capacity to confirm positive cases.
