Covid-19 infection rate falls below 50 cases per 100,000

THE coronavirus infection rate has now fallen to below 50 per 100,000 people.

Latest figures from Public Health Wales (PHW) yesterday revealed 195 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the latest 24-hour period – a drop from 230 reported on Friday. This brings the total since the start of the pandemic to 204,886.

Seven more people have died with Covid, bringing the death toll of people who have died with coronavirus in Wales within a month of a positive test to 5,385.

The infection rate across Wales is now 48 cases per 100,000 of population based on the seven days up to March 1, a drop on a figure of 50.7 reported on Friday.

The latest data also shows 983,419 people have now received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, up 16,377 from the figure of 967,042 published 24 hours earlier.

Health minister Vaughan Gething has announced that all adults in Wales will be offered a Covid-19 vaccine by July 31.

The vaccine rollout programme in Wales is due to speed up rapidly from this week due to increased supplies.

In total 168,163 people have now received both doses of the vaccine, a rise from 154,819 on Friday.

Gwynedd remains the local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales, with a sevenday rate of 85.1 per 100,000, down from 89.1 on Friday.

Caerphilly is second with a seven-day rate of 73.5 per 100,000 population, down from 76.8.

Conwy is third with a seven-day rate of 73.4 cases per 100,000, down from 83.6.

In terms of new cases reported in the last 24 hours Cardiff is highest with 22 followed by Caerphilly with 19, and Conwy, Flintshire and Gwynedd all with 14.

Wrexham and Swansea had 13, Merthyr Tydfil had 12, Carmarthenshire had 10, Denbighshire had nine, Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Newport had eight, Rhondda Cynon Taf had seven, Anglesey had six, Vale of Glamorgan had five, Monmouthshire had four, and Blaenau Gwent, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire had two.

In Friday’s press conference, Mr Gething said the Welsh Government would be looking at whether the current stay-at-home rule could be lifted as part of the latest lockdown review next week.

He added: “The latest figures show the overall number of people in hospital with coronavirus continues to fall and yesterday there were fewer than 450 people with confirmed coronavirus in hospital across Wales – the lowest number since October 17.

“As more people are vaccinated in Wales we may be seeing a fasterthan-anticipated fall in the number of people admitted to hospital.

“We have also seen a reduction in the number of people with coronavirus in our critical care units. All this is really positive and suggests that we are over the worst of the second wave of the virus in Wales – thanks to everything you have done over the last couple of months.”

There was a warning though about mutated strains which could cause more infections. To date there have been 24 cases of the South African variant in Wales. Investigations have identified the majority of cases have links to international travel.

He added: “Investigations are continuing into a handful of cases. They include targeted testing of close contacts to identify the source of infection and prevent any further spread.”

First Minister Mark Drakeford is currently self-isolating after being in contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus.

Mr Gething confirmed to the briefing that “a couple” of senior Welsh Government staff had tested positive for Covid-19.