Six deaths with virus is highest daily total since July 2

SIX more people have died in Wales after testing positive for Covid-19, the most reported in a single day since July 2.

Public Health Wales (PHW) also confirmed there were 398 new labconfirmed positive cases of coronavirus yesterday. This is the highest figure so far during the second wave. More cases were only reported once before on April 10.

Dr Robin Howe, incident director for the novel coronavirus outbreak, said approximately 2,000 test results - which will include both positive and negative results - from the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s lighthouse labs have been delayed.

“This means that today’s test numbers will be an underestimate of the true picture in Wales,” he said.

The number of overall deaths with coronavirus in Wales now stands at 1,622.

The last time six deaths or more were reported in a single day by PHW was on July 2.

Not all of these new deaths will have taken place in the last 24 hours due to delays in them being reported to PHW.

The figures come ahead of four local authority areas in north Wales - Denbighshire, Flintshire, Conwy and Wrexham - being placed into lockdown from 6pm yesterday.

They join Cardiff, Swansea, Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly borough, Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Newport, Neath Port Talbot, the Vale of Glamorgan and Torfaen in having local restrictions.

Blaenau Gwent continues to record the highest rate of infections in Wales with 246.2 positive cases per 100,000 population in the last seven days - down on 274.8 the day before.

Infection rates for Merthyr Tydfil are the second highest at 208.9 cases per 100,000, which was down on 213.8 yesterday, while Rhondda Cynon Taf also remains high at 178.2 cases per 100,000 (a drop on 184 on Wednesday).

The Wales average per 100,000 population is now at 75.7 - up from 73.4 the day before.

These are the key details on Thursday:

■ Deaths reported today: 6

■ Cases reported today: 398 ( up from 388 on Wednesday)

■ Number of tests carried out yesterday: 9,137 (up on 7,818 on Wednesday)

■ Total deaths with labconfirmed coronavirus in Wales: 1,622

■ Cardiff reported the highest number of positive tests on Thursday with 74, followed by Rhondda Cynon Taf with 51, Swansea and Wrexham with 25 and Bridgend with 23.

The other local authorities in double figures included Merthyr Tydfil with 18, Newport with 17, Conwy with 16, Flintshire and Caerphilly with 15, Carmarthenshire with 14, Blaenau Gwent with 13, Neath Port Talbot with 12 and Vale of Glamorgan with 10.

Meanwhile Torfaen had nine, Denbighshire had seven, Powys had six, Gwynedd had five, Ceredigion had four, Pembrokeshire and Monmouthshire had three and Anglesey had one.