Eight new deaths and 3,400 new cases recorded

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 with 121, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB with 100, Cardiff and Vale UHB with 81, Swansea Bay UHB with 57 and Hywel Dda UHB with 43.

As of Wednesday there were 49 people in invasive ventilated beds in Wales with coronavirus. Hywel Dda UHB had the most with 11, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB had 10, Swansea Bay UHB had eight, Betsi Cadwaladr UHB also had eight, Cardiff and Vale UHB had seven, and Aneurin Bevan UHB had five.