8 deaths but infection rate down

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 3,400 new positive cases, bringing the total number since the pandemic began to 372,029.

The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (seven days up to October 2) has begun to fall and now stands at 489.4 – a significant drop on the 507.3 reported on Wednesday.

The local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales is now Torfaen with 682.2 cases per 100,000 population over seven days, followed by Vale of Glamorgan with 626.6 and Denbighshire with 594.6.

Test positivity rates across Wales now stands at 14.4%, with Swansea having the greatest proportion of tests coming back positive at 16.8%. 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 446, Caerphilly with 295, RCT with 276,

Swansea with 270, Carmarthenshire with 228, and Vale of Glamorgan with 180.

Meanwhile Neath Port Talbot had 169 new cases, Bridgend had 141, Pembrokeshire had 133, Newport had 124, Gwynedd had 122, Conwy had 118, Powys had 112, Flintshire had 104, Denbighshire had 102, Torfaen had 99 and Wrexham had 97.

The local authorities with the lowest numbers of cases are Anglesey with 85, Monmouthshire with 79, Ceredigion with 61, Blaenau Gwent with 57 and Merthyr Tydfil with 49.

As of Wednesday there were 547 people in general and acute hospital beds with coronavirus (confirmed, suspected, and recovering) – down on the 565 reported in the previous day’s figures. Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (UHB) had the most Covid patients in general and acute hospital beds on October 6 with 145, followed by Betsi Cadwaladr UHB – 121, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB – 100, Cardiff and Vale UHB – 81, Swansea Bay UHB – 57 and Hywel Dda UHB – 43.

On Wednesday Public Health Wales figures showed 2,387,746 people have had one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 2,227,522 have had both doses.