Call to investigate pre-christmas death spike in county

A HIGH number of deaths in Ceredigion at the start of 2020 should be investigated to find out if coronavirus was to blame, an MP has said.

Figures obtained by Newyddion S4C reveal that in the first 17 weeks of the year, there were 342 deaths registered in the area.

This is nearly a quarter more than the average for the last five years, according to a BBC report.

Ceredigion MP Ben Lake is now calling for an investigation to find out if Covid-19 was circulating in the area before the pandemic was declared.

Mr Lake said he wanted the number of deaths to be examined in detail to ensure that nothing had been missed which could help prevent a second wave of the virus this winter, North Wales Live reports.

But experts say coronavirus was unlikely to be the cause of the surge in deaths.

The pandemic wasn’t confirmed to have spread to Wales until February 28, 2020, when a person who had recently return from Italy tested positive in Swansea.

Wales’s chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton suggested that there may be fluctuations and statistical changes which might account for the rise. “I think it’s extremely unlikely that coronavirus was in Ceredigion before it was in Wuhan,” he added.

Hywel Dda University Health Board medical director Phil Kloer told the BBC: “The main difference between January 2019 and January 2020 data is within hospital deaths, and at this time we did see an increase in respiratory viruses causing pressure on our hospital services.”