Four people die with virus as 227 new cases recorded

FOUR more people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales.

The latest daily update from Public Health Wales (PHW) on Thursday, March 25 recorded 227 new positive cases in the last 24-hour period, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 208,504.

But Dr Eleri Davies, incident director for the novel coronavirus outbreak response at PHW, said the significant rise in new cases - from 159 the day before - can be attributed to a reporting delay.

She explained: “The PHW Covid-19 data on the public-facing dashboard includes 33 new positive results from tests carried out on January 25. The reporting of these tests was delayed because of a discrepancy between different data views which has been investigated and there are now processes in place to help identify such issues.”

Following the four new reported deaths, the number of people who have died with coronavirus in Wales within a month of a positive test is now at 5,495.

The infection rate across Wales is now 39.1 cases per 100,000 of population based on the seven days up to March 20, which is down from 40.5 on Wednesday.

The percentage of tests coming back with positive results is now further below the key 5% benchmark at 3.2% in the last seven days. The data shows that 1,320,188 people have now received a first dose of the vaccine and a further 378,795 have had both jabs.

Swansea saw the highest number of new cases reported on Wednesday with 39 followed by Cardiff with 26, Newport with 14, Merthyr Tydfil with 13, Carmarthenshire, Wrexham and Flintshire with 11, and Caerphilly with 10.

Gwynedd and Neath Port Talbot had nine new cases, Anglesey and Bridgend had eight, Monmouthshire, Conwy, RCT and Powys had seven, Vale of Glamorgan and Pembrokeshire had six, Denbighshire had four, Torfaen had three and

Blaenau Gwent had one. Ceredigion reported no new cases.

Cases per 100,000 based on seven-day rolling average (March 14-20): ■ Blaenau Gwent: (up from 68.7) ■ Newport: 51.1 (down from 53) ■ Caerphilly: 46.4 (down from 46.9) ■ Torfaen: 16 (down from 18.1) ■ Monmouthshire: (up from 13.7) ■ Conwy: 52 (up from 51.2) ■ Anglesey: 94.2 (down from 101.4) ■ Gwynedd: 36.1 (down from 41.7) ■ Denbighshire: 24 (down from 26.1) ■ Flintshire: 66.6 (down from 71.7) 74.4 14.8

■ Wrexham: (unchanged) ■ Cardiff: 33 (down from 33.3) ■ Vale of Glamorgan: 32.2 (down from 38.2) ■ Merthyr Tydfil: (up from 112.7) ■ Rhondda Cynon Taf: 21.6 (down from 22.4) ■ Bridgend: 16.3 (down from 19) ■ Carmarthenshire: (down from 30.7) ■ Pembrokeshire: (down from 32.6) ■ Ceredigion: 9.6 (down from 11) ■ Powys: 16.6 (up from 15.9) ■ Neath Port Talbot: 50.2 (up from 46.8) ■ Swansea: 49 (down from 53.4) ■ Wales total: 39.1 (down from 40.5) 33.8 127.6 28.1 30.2