New cases halved due to delay

THE number of daily coronavirus cases in Wales yesterday more than halved when compared to the previous day, due to a “reporting delay”.

Public Health Wales (PHW) announced 444 more people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 following a lab test. This represents a big drop from the 931 positive cases reported on Monday.

But Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the novel coronavirus outbreak response, said: “Today’s dashboard displays a lower level of positive cases than in recent days. This is due to a reporting delay in Public Health Wales receiving data from non-NHS Wales laboratories.”

The NHS body also confirmed 22 more people had lost their lives with the virus, to take the toll to 2,063.

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 499, a drop from 505.6 on Monday.

Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) has the second-highest incidence rate with 405.8 cases per 100,000, down from 444.7, while Blaenau Gwent is third with 330.7, a big fall on 407.9.

Elsewhere in South Wales, the rate was 211.2 per 100,00 people in Cardiff, 282.2 in Bridgend, 263.2 in Caerphilly, 158.6 in Torfaen, 142.2 in Newport and 120.5 in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Wales as a whole now averages 195.3 cases per 100,000 people, a drop from 208.2 on Monday.

Cardiff reported the most positive cases in the past 24 hours with 61, followed by RCT with 55, Bridgend with 38 and Neath Port Talbot with 30.

Other local authorities in double figures included Newport with 24, Caerphilly with 22, Swansea with 21, Torfaen and Merthyr Tydfil with 19, Powys with 18, Wrexham with 16, Blaenau Gwent and Flintshire with 15 and Vale of Glamorgan with 10.

Conwy had nine new cases, Monmouthshire and Pembrokeshire eight, Carmarthenshire seven, Gwynedd four and Ceredigion, Anglesey and Denbighshire two each.