Infection rate has fallen for four days in a row

ANOTHER nine people in Wales have died with coronavirus as Wales’ infection rate falls for the fourth day in a row.

New figures from Public Health Wales (PHW) published yesterday, which covers until 9am on Friday, shows the total number of Covidrelated deaths in Wales is now 6,150.

There were also 3,016 new positive cases recorded in yesterday’s update, bringing the total number since the pandemic began to 437,972.

The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (for the seven days up to October 25) now stands at 618.1 – a fall from the 653.1 reported on Friday and a fourth consecutive day where rates have fallen.

The local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales is Torfaen with 872 cases per 100,000 population over seven days, closely followed by Blaenau Gwent with 846 and Caerphilly with 842.

The test positivity rate across Wales is at 22.8%, which is slightly up from 22.7 last time. In Neath Port Talbot the percentage having their test come back positive is 26.7% – the highest of any local authority.

The areas of the country recording the highest numbers of Covid cases in the latest 24-hour period were Cardiff with 355, Caerphilly has 241, Swansea had 238 and Carmarthenshire with 209.

Newport had 169, with Neath Port Talbot just behind with 167. Vale of Glamorgan had 158, RCT 156, Torfaen 149 and Bridgend 137. Pembrokeshire and Flintshire were the two others with more than 100 cases, with both seeing 111.

Next are Monmouthshire with 98, Conwy with 95 and Powys with 88. Followed by Gwynedd with 79, Wrexham 70, Denbighshire 55, Ceredigion 47 and finally Anglesey 44.

As of October 28 there were 754 people in general and acute hospital beds with coronavirus (confirmed, suspected and recovering), a rise on the 718 reported two days before.