Hundreds more test positive as another eight die

EIGHT more people have died with coronavirus in Wales while more than 900 new positive cases have been identified.

Yesterday, Public Health Wales (PHW) announced 931 more people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 following a lab test.

This was a rise from the 744 positive cases reported on Sunday.

PHW also confirmed eight more people had lost their lives with the virus to take the death total to 2,041.

Merthyr Tydfil is still the local authority with the most cases per 100,000 over a seven-day average although the number has fallen to 505.6, a drop from 523.8 on Sunday.

Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) has the second highest incidence rate with 444.7 cases per 100,000, down from 466.7, while Blaenau Gwent is third with 407.9, down on 409.4 the previous day.

Elsewhere in South Wales, Bridgend had 304.7 cases per 100,000 people, Caerphilly had 273.4, Cardiff 223.2, Newport 155.8, Torfaen 157.5 and Vale of Glamorgan 138.5.

Wales as a whole now averages 208.2 cases per 100,000 people, a drop from 219.1 on Sunday.

RCT reported the most positive cases in the latest 24 hours with 146, followed by Cardiff with 121, Swansea with 100, Carmarthenshire with 65, Bridgend with 64, Caerphilly with 61 and Merthyr Tydfil and Ceredigion both with 46.

Blaenau Gwent had 41 new cases, Neath Port Talbot had 34, Torfaen had 33, Flintshire had 29, Vale of Glamorgan had 22, Monmouthshire had 12 and Newport and Wrexham had 18 each.

Meanwhile, Conwy had nine cases, Pembrokeshrie had eight, Powys had seven, Denbighshire and Gwynedd had five and Anglesey had three.

Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the novel coronavirus outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “We support the call for the public to take personal responsibility for their actions and to ensure that we are all doing as much as possible to limit the transmission of coronavirus.

“We ask the public to observe the new regulations and to limit their contact with other people as much as possible so that we all work together to bring the numbers of positive cases down.”