Lincoln City manager Michael Appleton said the LNER Stadium has felt “eerie” without fans this season, but is looking forward to welcoming them back for the League One play-offs.
Lincoln City are preparing for a two-legged play-off semi final against Sunderland, with the first game taking place at the LNER Stadium on Wednesday, May 19 and the return fixture at the Stadium of Light three days later.
The Imps finished in fifth place after the 46-game League One regular season, securing a spot in the play-off positions to fight for a chance to play at Wembley and earn promotion to the Championship.
No coronavirus deaths for six days in Greater Lincolnshire
But 60 COVID cases on Thursday
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Thursday has marked six days without a coronavirus death in Greater Lincolnshire, but there have been 60 new cases – a decrease from 71 cases and no deaths this time last week.
The government’s COVID-19 dashboard recorded 44 new cases in Lincolnshire, 12 in North Lincolnshire and four in North East Lincolnshire.
NHS England has also reported no new local hospital deaths across Greater Lincolnshire’s four hospital trusts for the sixth day in a row and currently stands at 1,305 since the pandemic started.
70% of Lincolnshire adults now had their first COVID-19 vaccine dose
A quarter of county fully-vaccinated
Janet Judson, 84, a retired nurse, was the first in Lincolnshire to get the COVID vaccine from lead nurse Leanne Belton in December 2020. | Photo: ULHT
Nearly 70% of the Lincolnshire adult population has received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and a quarter of the county its second, according to the latest figures.
Data released on Thursday shows altogether 596,153 jabs have taken place in the county between December 8 and April 25 a further 46,631 in the last week, and up on the 41,242 jabs given the week before.
The latest figures show that some 438,059 Lincolnshire residents have received their first vaccine dose and 158,095 have been given their second.
Visiting restrictions relaxed at Lincolnshire hospitals next month
One visitor per patient per day
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Patients at Lincolnshire hospitals will once again be able to receive visitors, via a booking system, from next month.
Restrictions will begin to be lifted from Monday, May 3 2021.
Visiting will be possible on hospital wards at Lincoln County Hospital and Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, by booking a visiting slot in advance, and will allow one visitor per patient per day.
One visitor will be allowed per ward bay at any one time, regardless of the bay size.
All visitors should adhere to the following advice:
10th day in a row with no COVID-19 hospital deaths in Greater Lincolnshire
“Significant drop” in admissions
One of the bays in ward 29 at Scunthorpe General Hospital. | Photo: NLaG
Wednesday has marked the 10th day in a row where no COVID-related hospital deaths have been reported at any of the four Greater Lincolnshire health trusts.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT), Lincolnshire Community Health Service, Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLaG) hospitals have seen no change in the number of coronavirus-related deaths on April 28, which currently stands at 1,303 since the pandemic started.
The last time there was a hospital death was one at ULHT over the weekend of April 17/18. Since then, none have been recorded.