Encouraging figures for our communities

THERE is only one part of Wales which had a Covid-19 infection rate in excess of 100 cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days.

New data released by the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales has revealed the number of cases of Covid-19 in every community in Wales.

Public Health Wales publishes the figures and this data was published on Friday, May 14. It provides the numbers for areas with an average of 7,000 people, called middle super output areas (MSOA).

In practice this means there are statistics for areas like Canton in Cardiff, Morriston in Swansea, and Porth in Rhondda.

The data shows there are 13 places in Wales with more than 100 cases per 100,000 of population.

The areas with the most cases are:

■ Stow Hill, Newport – 122

■ Pembrey & Burry Port, Carmarthenshire – 96.2

■ South Riverside, Cardiff – 94.2

■ Cathays South & Bute Park, Cardiff – 86.9

■ Splott, Cardiff – 81.1

■ Cathays North, Cardiff – 74.2

■ Harlech & Llanbedr, Gwynedd – 67.3

■ Bettws, Newport – 62.2

■ Wrexham West, Wrexham – 60

■ Victoria & Somerton, Newport – 59

■ Llanfyllin & Llanwyddyn, Powys – 54.7

■ Caerleon, Newport – 51.4

■ Malpas, Newport – 51

It is really important to bear in mind that this data is very volatile because it covers smaller areas. Where an area has a very small population even one positive case can push up the cases per 100,000 significantly.

You should therefore be cautious about drawing too many conclusions directly from the information.