Number of new cases falls to levels seen last August

THE number of new coronavirus cases reported in Wales in the last 24 hours has fallen to levels last seen in August 2020.

Wales recorded no new Covid-19 deaths and only 33 positive cases on Tuesday – the lowest number of daily cases in eight months since August 25 last year.

At the peak of the second wave in December and January, as many as 4,142 new cases were reported in a single 24-hour period.

The infection rate across Wales now stands at 12.2 cases per 100,000 people for the seven days up to April 22 – a decrease from 12.9 on Monday.

This is still slightly higher than it had been at the end of August last year but the rate has been falling consistently from a peak of 650 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to December 16. The stats published on Tuesday by Public Health Wales (PHW) bring the total number of positive cases since the pandemic began to 211,354.

The country’s overall number of lab-confirmed coronavirus deaths remains at 5,548.

The percentage of tests coming back with positive results stands at 1.4% – significantly below the key benchmark of 5%. Gwynedd (2.8%), Newport (2.2%) and Powys (2.1%) are the only local authorities recording more than 2%.

The latest figures also show that 1,785,347 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 701,099 people have had both doses.

Uptake of the first vaccine dose by priority group (according to PHW):

Care home residents: 14,992 (97.6%)

Care home workers: 34,445 (90.4%)

80 years and older: 166,340 (95.5%)

Healthcare workers: 134,269 (94.1%)

Social care workers: 45,181 (no percentage available)

75-79 years: 127,942 (96.2%)

70-74 years: 175,293 (95.5%)

Clinically extremely vulnerable 16-69 years: 75,666 (93%)

65-69 years: 168,933 (93.7%)

Clinical risk groups 16-64 years: 299,680 (84.9%)

60-64 years: 187,755 (91.3%)

55-59 years: 207,583 (88.8%)

50-54 years: 196,856 (86.3%)

40-49 years: 273,928 (69.9%)

30-39 years: 155,875 (37.1%)

18-29 years: 98,903 (21.3%)