Cases of coronavirus among young ‘falling’
CASES of coronavirus among young people are now falling again reversing the trend after a recent spike in numbers prompted concern.
A huge rise in coronavirus cases in young people was reported in some areas of Wales last week, with the likes of Neath Port Talbot seeing a more than 30% increase in cases among the under 25s.
Now, almost all parts of Wales are seeing a fall in cases in the age group, with only five areas of Wales seeing very small increases in cases.
The figures, which look at the case incidences per 100,000 between April 2 and April 8, are released weekly by Public Health Wales and look at two key age brackets - the under 25s and over 60s.
The Welsh Government
have previously said these two groups are key indicators to spot early trends in increase of the virus.
Other key factors it looks at are the sevenday incidence rate among the whole population and test positivity. These all help guide decisions about which lockdown restrictions should be in place at any time.
It’s important to note that due to the relatively small number of cases overall in some areas, small changes over the week can result in large percentage changes.
Cases in Neath Port Talbot are down by 48.8% on last week’s figures, but still remain high with 29.3 cases per 100,000 people under 25.
Cardiff also saw an increase in the case rate in under 25 year olds last week, but this week that number has fallen by 16.8% to 36.6 per 100k people, which remains the highest incidence rate among young people in Wales.
Other areas that have seen rapid declines in the case rate among under 25s this week include Gwynedd, with a fall of 59.2%, and Denbigshire, with a fall of 41.1%. Areas where cases have increased in the last week include Newport (+6.1), Bridgend (+2.3), Rhondda Cynon Taf (+4.1), Ceredigion (+4.4) and Pembrokeshire (+3).