11 MORE DEATHS ARE RECORDED

WALES’ seven-day coronavirus infection rate has now reached the highest level since the pandemic began, it has been revealed.

New figures from Public Health Wales (PHW) published yesterday show there were 11 further Covid deaths recorded to bring the total in Wales to 6,074.

There were also 3,296 new positive cases recorded in today’s update, bringing the total number since the pandemic began to 415,829.

The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (seven days up to October 17) now stands at 681.9 – the highest rate ever and a sharp rise from the 651.9 reported on Thursday.

The local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales is now Blaenau Gwent with 1,185.2 cases per 100,000 people over seven days, followed by Torfaen with 1,000.4 and Caerphilly with 961.5.

The test positivity rate across Wales has risen to 22.9%, meaning more than a fifth of all those getting tests are coming back positive.

Nearly a third of people in Blaenau Gwent are having their test come back positive (31.6%) – the highest of any local authority.

The areas of the country recording the highest numbers of Covid cases in the latest 24-hour period were Swansea with 297, Cardiff with 260, Caerphilly with 252, RCT with 244, Torfaen with 193 and Neath Port Talbot with 192.

Meanwhile, Carmarthenshire had 179 new cases, Pembrokeshire had 178, Newport had 171, Bridgend had 169, Blaenau Gwent had 133, Vale of Glamorgan, Flintshire and Powys all had 113, and Monmouthshire had 104.

The local authorities with the lowest numbers of cases included Conwy with 91, Denbighshire with 87, Wrexham with 79, Gwynedd with 78, Ceredigion with 68, Merthyr Tydfil with 64 and Anglesey with 51.

As of October 21 there were 677 people in general and acute hospital beds with coronavirus (confirmed, suspected, and recovering) – up from 673 the day before – and 59 people in invasive ventilated beds in Wales with coronavirus.

Yesterday’s PHW figures also showed that 2,421,700 people have had one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 2,238,258 have had both doses.