Another 23 deaths and 5,705 new cases confirmed in Wales

A further 23 people have died with coronavirus in Wales according to latest figures from Public Health Wales (PHW).

The data published on Friday, October 8, also revealed there were 5,705 new positive cases, bringing the total number since the pandemic began to 377,734.

The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (seven days up to October 4) has risen slightly again and now stands at 492.9 - a slight increase on the 489.4 reported on Thursday. The figures announced on Friday are for the 48-hour period up to 8am on October 8, according to PHW.

The local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales is now Torfaen with 718.4 cases per 100,000 population over seven days, followed by Vale of Glamorgan with 656.5 and Caerphilly with 595.3.

Test positivity rates across Wales now stands at 15.2% with Torfaen having the greatest proportion of tests coming back positive at 19.4%. 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 48-hour period were Cardiff with 2,132, Swansea with 1,312, RCT with 1,148, Caerphilly and Carmarthenshire with 1,078 each, and Vale of Glamorgan with 877.

Pembrokeshire had 732 new cases, Neath Port Talbot had 720, Torfaen had 675, Newport had 657, Flintshire had 615, Bridgend had 613, Gwynedd had 536, Denbighshire had 517, Conwy had 502, Wrexham had 493, and Powys had 477.

The local authorities with the lowest numbers of cases were Anglesey with 342, Monmouthshire with 314, Blaenau Gwent with 248, Ceredigion with 226, and Merthyr Tydfil with 206.