No new Covid deaths in Wales for the seventh time this month

NO NEW coronavirus deaths have been reported in Wales for the seventh time this month, it has been announced.

Public Health Wales (PHW) confirmed yesterday that the death toll since the outbreak began remains at 1,589.

There were no new deaths reported by PHW on 13 occasions in July and six times previously this month. However, this does not necessarily mean no-one has died with the virus on those specific dates as it can take several days for a death to be logged officially.

So-called “true” death figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which include deaths in all places and also when Covid-19 is suspected rather than confirmed, found that 2,544 had died with the virus in Wales registered up to August 15.

Meanwhile, PHW said yesterday the number of labconfirmed positive cases of coronavirus in Wales had increased by 24 to bring the total to 17,599.

Wrexham once again recorded the most positive cases with four, followed by Rhondda Cynon Taf with three. Newport, Denbighshire, Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan and Swansea all had two, while Caerphilly, Anglesey, Flintshire, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Neath Port Talbot recorded one case each.

All other local authorities had no new cases.

Despite testing capacity standing at more than 15,000 each day in Wales, around a third (5,460) took place on Monday. However, the Welsh Government said this additional unused capacity would prove useful should Wales see any local spikes in cases.

The total number of tests now stands at 491,245. The number of people who have been tested in total in Wales is 291,791, with 274,192 testing negative.

The latest figures were released following a press conference with Health Minister Vaughan Gething, who gave an update on the latest situation in Wales.

He confirmed that there were only three people in critical care and 70 people in hospital with coronavirus in Wales today.

“This is the lowest number of Covid-19 patients in critical care since we started reporting,” he said. “The number of people dying each week with coronavirus has fallen substantially since the peak in April and, in the past week, there were three days when no new deaths were recorded

“However, 2,544 people in Wales have died... Every single death is a tragedy. My thoughts are with the thousands of grieving families and friends who have lost loved ones to this awful virus.”