Eight more die with Covid-19 but infection rates continue to fall

EIGHT more people have died with coronavirus in Wales according to latest figures from Public Health Wales.

The data published yesterday also revealed there were 2,007 new positive cases, bringing the total number since the pandemic began to 368,629.

The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (seven days up to October 1) has begun to fall and now stands at 507.3 – a significant drop on the 530.5 reported on Tuesday.

The local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales is now Torfaen with 688.6 cases per 100,000 population over seven days, followed by Denbighshire with 632.2 and Vale of Glamorgan with 630.3.

Test positivity rates across Wales now stands at 14.5%, with Denbighshire having the greatest proportion of tests coming back positive at 17.1%. Test positivity has been slowly falling for the last month after peaking at 22% across Wales in the first week of September.

The areas of the country recording the highest numbers of Covid cases in the latest 24-hour period were Cardiff with 321, Swansea with 229, Carmarthenshire with 160, RCT with 139, Caerphilly with 128 and Vale of Glamorgan with 114.

Meanwhile Neath Port Talbot had 96 new cases, Torfaen had 92, Pembrokeshire had 86, Powys had 84, Newport had 80, Flintshire had 71, Bridgend had 69, Conwy had 47, Denbighshire had 43, Monmouthshire had 42 and Wrexham had 40.

The local authorities with the lowest numbers of cases are Anglesey with 35, Ceredigion with 28, Gwynedd with 27, Blaenau Gwent with 16 and Merthyr Tydfil with 15.