‘No evidence’ over plant transmission

ONE more person has died after contracting coronavirus in Wales, it was announced yesterday.

It is the lowest reported number of daily deaths in Wales since June 23.

Public Health Wales (PHW) confirmed that the total number of deaths in patients with lab-confirmed Covid-19 since the outbreak began has now reached 1,531.

But the true death toll, according to the figures the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes every week, was 2,408 in Wales by June 19.

The number of lab-confirmed positive cases of coronavirus in Wales has risen by 15, totalling 15,890, PHW reports. There were 3,393 tests carried out in Wales on Saturday.

Out of Wales’ 22 local authorities, 17 reported no new cases since Saturday. Anglesey reported two new cases, Wrexham reported seven new cases, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Cardiff both reported one, and Swansea reported two new cases.

Some of the new cases are related to the outbreaks in Rowan Foods in Wrexham, 2 Sisters in Anglesey, and Kepak in Merthyr.

In relation to the cluster of cases in Merthyr, Dr Chis Williams, incident director for the coronavirus outbreak at PHW, said there was no evidence to suggest any ongoing transmission in the plant and that there is no evidence to suggest a surge of infections in the wider community.

Dr Williams said the number of new cases in Wrexham is associated with the Rowan Foods Ltd outbreak.

He said: “The multi-agency team managing the outbreak of coronavirus associated with Rowan Foods Ltd in Wrexham has recorded a small increase of six cases since Wednesday, bringing the total to 289 cases.

“This is in line with what we would expect to see from focused testing.

“The monitoring and case data emerging from the 2 Sisters plant in Llangefni, Anglesey remains consistently reassuring.

“Following the multi-agency outbreak control team (OCT) meeting on Friday, July 3, a single additional case associated with the plant was reported. This brings the total number of positive cases associated with the factory and its workforce with a confirmed novel coronavirus (Covid-19) infection to a total of 218.

“Following the incident management team meeting on Friday, July 3, we have recorded a single new positive case identified at the Kepak Merthyr meat processing plant, with the total now standing at 135 positive cases since April.

“Focused testing as part of the management of clusters and outbreaks of coronavirus will inevitably identify new cases but this does not mean that there has been a significant increase in the level of infection in the community.

“If we look at other data such as hospital admissions or wider surveillance indicators there is no evidence of a surge of infections in the wider community in Merthyr.

“It is too early to draw precise conclusions but our monitoring does show a historic correlation between levels of infection in the plant and previous background levels of infection in the wider community. There is no evidence to suggest any ongoing transmission in the plant.”

The latest figures were announced on Sunday afternoon after the World Health Organisation reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Saturday.

There were 212,326 new infections across the world detected on Saturday in a reminder that though things may appearing to be settling in the UK the coronavirus continues to spread.

The United States, Brazil, and India recorded the biggest increases on Saturday, WHO data shows.

The previous highest daily figure for new cases was 189,077, which was recorded on June 28.