Care home blamed for coronavirus infection rate spike in South Holland

Leader of South Holland District Council, Coun Lord Gary Porter, put the spike down to outbreaks in two care facilities, one being a children’s care home.

He said: “Obviously the numbers are much higher than I would like. The increase is largely driven by two large isolated care home cases with almost 100 between them.”

“I don’t know if the adult care home had the jabs done before the outbreak, but the children’s one wouldn’t have.

“What the figures do show is that it is still vitally important that everyone continues to make sure that they protect themselves as best they can.”

He added: “The vaccine rollout has started but will be months away from having a major impact on tackling the virus.”

Meanwhile, South Kesteven dropped after two weeks from the top spot to third highest infection rate in Lincolnshire with 299.1 per 100,000 of the population.

Lincoln has remained the same since Friday, but in doing so has moved up to first place with the highest infection rate in Lincolnshire of 327.3.

On January 4, local health bosses did not know what caused South Kesteven’s mystery spike in COVID-19 infections, but an outbreak at a care home in Grantham could have likely pushed the numbers up,

Some 14 days later, South Kesteven reduced its infection rate and went from first to third place in the county.

However, it is still above the Lincolnshire average of 229 as of January 17.

In national news, analysis by the Press Association has shown 279 out of 315 local areas in England have seen a fall in case rates in the last seven days up to January 13.

Since January 13, the national average has fallen further from 654.9 to 537.9 on January 17.