INFECTION RATES STILL FALLING

A FURTHER six 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 up to 9am on January 14, also shows 2,133 new positive cases, bringing the Wales total to 740,742.

The overall number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive in Wales has now reached 6,689.

The latest infection rate, based on the seven days up to January 10 is 1,109.1 cases for every 100,000 people – down from 1,274.2. That is expected as the change to testing rules filters through into the weekly infection rate. Anyone who has a positive lateral flow test, but does not have symptoms, will no longer need to take a PCR test to confirm they have Covid, which will impact testing figures.

The highest infection rate in a Welsh local authority for the seven days between January 4 and January 10 was Neath Port Talbot with 1,331.3 cases per 100,000, followed by Wrexham with 1,276.9 and Blaenau Gwent with 1206.7.

Cardiff recorded the most positive cases over the latest 24-hour period with 270, followed by Swansea with 169, RCT with 137, Caerphilly with 132, Neath Port Talbot with 129, Newport with 124, and both Carmarthenshire and Wrexham with 111.

Meanwhile, Bridgend had 90 new cases, Conwy had 89, Vale of Glamorgan had 87, Monmouthshire had 83, Pembrokeshire had 72, Torfaen had 69, Flintshire had 66 and Denbighshire had 59.

The lowest number of cases were found in Merthyr Tydfil with 53, Gwynedd with 47, Anglesey and Powys both with 45, and Blaenau Gwent and Ceredigion with 35.

The percentage of tests coming back positive is 41.4%, down from 43.2% .

As of January 13 there were 1,158 people in general and acute hospital beds with coronavirus (confirmed, suspected and recovering), down from 1,189 – and 31 people in intensive care with Covid-19, down from 39.

A total of 2,499,752 people have received one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 2,334,096 have been given both doses.

Meanwhile, 1,765,080 people have been given their booster jabs in Wales.

The Welsh Government has confirmed that all eligible adults were offered one by the end of December.