One further death linked to Covid -19

ANOTHER person has died after contracting coronavirus in Wales, it has been announced.

Public Health Wales (PHW) confirmed yesterday that it had received one new report of a death with lab-confirmed Covid19.

It means the total number of deaths recorded by the NHS trust since the outbreak began now stands at 1,546.

The confirmed death was of a patient based in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which covers Denbighshire, Wrexham, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Anglesey and Conwy.

There have been no new deaths reported on five occasions this month, including on July 6, 10, 12, 13 and 16.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean no-one died with the virus on those specific dates as it can take several days for a death to be logged officially.

The days in which no deaths with Covid-19 have occurred in Wales are June 18, July 3, July 10 and July 12. So far this week there have been no deaths that have occurred since Monday which have been registered with PHW.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the true death toll in Wales, where the virus was mentioned on a death certificate, was 2,470 by July 11. Meanwhile, PHW said the number of labconfirmed positive cases of coronavirus in Wales had increased by 16 to bring the total to 16,887.

Wrexham had five new cases followed by Flintshire, Cardiff and Swansea with two. Conwy, Gwynedd, Vale of Glamorgan, Powys and Neath Port Talbot all had one new case. All other local authorities had no new cases. And even though testing capacity stands at 15,000 each day in Wales, just 3,409 tests were carried out on Thursday.

The latest figures were announced following a press conference with First Minister Mark Drakeford, who confirmed that playgrounds, funfairs, community centres and outdoor gyms can reopen on Monday.

“We continue to look carefully at the latest medical and scientific evidence and the current state of the virus as we make decisions to unlock our society and economy,” he said.