Total 1,538 after four more deaths in Wales

THE number of people who have died after being diagnosed with coronavirus in Wales has risen by four.

Public Health Wales (PHW) announced yesterday that the death toll since the outbreak began had now reached 1,538.

In addition, the number of lab-confirmed positive cases of coronavirus in Wales has increased by 13, to bring the total to 15,913.

The Vale of Glamorgan, Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taf all had two cases, while Blaenau Gwent, Newport, Anglesey, Gwynedd, Cardiff and Swansea had one. There was also one case of “unknown location”. The other local authority areas in Wales had no new cases.

Even though testing capacity stands at 15,000 each day in Wales, 3,625 tests were carried out on Tuesday, July 7.

The latest figures were announced following a press conference with NHS chief executive Andrew Goodall, who gave the latest update on the situation in Wales.

Dr Goodall started by confirming that the number of new positive cases of the virus had been declining since April, despite more tests being carried out. He also stated that death rates had also been falling since the middle of April.

“But these are not just figures, and my condolences go out to the families who have lost a loved one over the past few months,” he said.

Dr Goodall said about 20% of acute hospital beds were currently empty, which equated to around 1,300 beds.

He added: “There are 529 Covid-19 patients in Welsh hospitals today – this is more than 60% lower than the peak in April.

“There are a total of 275 critical care beds in Wales available and vacant.

“This includes additional capacity. More than half are empty and available.

“Twelve people are being treated in critical care for coronavirus – this is the lowest number since the pandemic started.”

The NHS chief executive said health boards were now planning for the winter in case of a “resurgence” of the virus.

He added that flu planning would be of particular importance this season, with the annual vaccination programme “expanded”.

“The NHS is looking at how the winter flu vaccination can be delivered to take account of the needs of vulnerable people and children,” he said.

He said health boards were working on a number of ways of increasing capacity in NHS settings and building public confidence in using them.

“Health boards are putting in place a range of actions to increase capacity, develop rapid-access diagnostic clinics, and are working with their local population to ensure non-coronavirus ‘green zones’ are visible to ensure people feel safe and secure when seeking healthcare.”

He said hospitals were also looking at new approaches to providing emergency care, such as a “contact first” system for A&E to avoid queues and overcome social distancing issues. This would involve patients who were able to ring ahead if they needed to attend.

“I want to reiterate that emergency services will always be available for people who need life-saving care and treatment,” he added.

Throughout the pandemic, Dr Goodall said, cancer services had been maintained “wherever possible” but admitted there were disruptions.

“Some will have been affected by the need for an enhanced infection control, reduced staff availability, reduced access to theatres and critical care and access to diagnostics,” he said.

He added that while some aspects of cancer treatment were restarting, other areas remained challenging, including endoscopy, where the risk of infection was high.

“Cervical, breast and bowel cancer screening services have all restarted and I urge everyone who has been invited to come forward.”

Meanwhile, a new report by the Senedd’s health committee described care homes as being “badly let down” during the pandemic.

One of the biggest areas of concern was the delay in providing appropriate testing measures.

Dr Goodall responded by stating: “We have really tried from the outset to ensure that there was a focus on care homes on the range of different policies we put in place.

“Irrespective of testing approaches, we have always been very open about learning from this virus as it developed and progressed and made sure we were able to change policy decisions about our system, when the evidence showed there was a need for change, we also wanted to ensure there were different ways and I think that has been provided.”

When asked about the current morale of NHS Wales staff, who were now having to deal with a backlog of non-urgent work in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis halting many services, Dr Goodall said: “If I could just say once again how grateful I am for the extraordinary efforts of NHS and social care staff for what they have done throughout this period of time.

“We are going into the coronavirus on the back of winter pressures, which was a particularly difficult winter.

“When we stepped away from routine activities in March, partly that was to ensure that our staff were able to, if I put it this way, step aside from the treadmill.

“They had a bit of time for preparations so that we could retrain as necessary before we got into the peak of the virus.

“I am concerned about ongoing resilience. We are focusing on how we can support our staff in all different ways.”