The current coronavirus data for South Ayrshire shows that the area is in a very good place with case numbers down to levels which would see it placed in level two.

However, figures have not been updated since last Thursday owing to the Easter weekend and so are not quite up-to-date.

The last update from Public Health Scotland (PHS) shows that South Ayrshire had a seven day rate per 100,000 of 26.6, making it the ninth least affected council area in the country.

In total there were 30 cases recorded between March 23-29, which is the most recent data available at the moment.

To put that in comparison, last week, we reported there were 44 cases recorded between March 19-25.

Almost all neighbourhoods in the region are currently classified as having suppressed the virus with 22 of the 25 being put in that category by PHS. Only Prestwick East, Heathfield, and Dundonald, Loans and Symington are not, with six, four, and three cases each respectively.

The data also shows that 63.7 per cent of all adults in South Ayrshire have now received a first dose of the vaccine and 7.4 per cent have had a second jag too.

The National Records of Scotland data for deaths from the virus in the area covering the week March 22-28 show that one person lost their life where COVID was mentioned on the death certificate, which is an increase of one from the previous week.

Last week marked an important milestone in our journey out of the COVID-19 lockdown as the stay at home message was dropped in favour of one advising people to stay local.

And yesterday saw the return of hairdressing salons, homeware shops and garden centres reopen across the country.

Non-essential click-and-collect services are also allowed to resume.

Teenagers were also granted new freedoms, with 12-17-year-olds being allowed to play contact sports outdoors.