Four more deaths as infection rate rises again
FOUR more people have died with coronavirus in Wales, according to latest figures from Public Health Wales.
The data, published yesterday and covering a 24-hour period, shows 2,707 new positive cases to bring the total to 765,737.
The overall number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive in Wales has now reached 6,788.
The latest infection rate based on PCR tests, for the seven days up to January 21, now stands at 496.3 cases for every 100,000 people – up on the 483.7 recorded on Tuesday. It is the third day in a row that the infection rate is reported to have risen.
The infection rate based on PCR tests is only a guide to the spread of Covid in Wales as it does not include lateral flow test results, which are reported weekly in Wales. People with no symptoms who test positive on a LFT no longer need a confirmatory PCR test.
The local authority with the highest infection rate for the seven days between January 15-21 was Newport with 839.8 cases per 100,000, followed by Merthyr Tydfil with 636.5 and Carmarthenshire with 612.9.
Cardiff recorded the most positive cases over the latest 24-hour period with 412, followed by Swansea with 270, Newport with 226, Carmarthenshire with 219, Rhondda Cynon Taf with 198, Caerphilly with 157, Neath Port Talbot with 141, Vale of Glamorgan with 137 and Bridgend with 123.
They were followed by Flintshire with 95, Torfaen with 84, Wrexham with 83, Powys with 73, Blaenau Gwent with 70, Pembrokeshire with 67 and Merthyr Tydfil with 63.
The areas with the lowest cases were Denbighshire with 54, Conwy with 45, Monmouthshire with 43, Ceredigion with 35, Anglesey with 23 and Gwynedd with 17.
In the seven days to January 21, a total of 34% of PCR tests across Wales gave a positive result, up from 33.6% reported on Tuesday. The highest positivity rates were in Newport (41.1%), Cardiff (38.3%), and Neath Port Talbot (37.9%).
As of Tuesday, there were 959 people in general and acute hospital beds with coronavirus (confirmed, suspected and recovering), a fall on the 1,016 on Monday. Within that data, the number of confirmed Covid patients has fallen from 527 on Monday to 491 on Tuesday.
There were 22 people in ventilated intensive care beds with confirmed Covid-19 on Tuesday. This was up on the 19 reported on Monday but still almost half the Omicron wave peak of 39 on January 5.
A total of 2,506,323 people have received one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 2,359,337 have been given two doses. Meanwhile, 1,816,545 people have been given their booster jabs in Wales.