Five more people have died with coronavirus in Wales according to latest figures from Public Health Wales.
The data published on Friday, October 1, also revealed there were 3,009 new positive cases, bringing the total number since the pandemic began to 358,550.
The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (seven days up to September 26) now stands at 638.4 – a drop on the 648.1 reported on Thursday.
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The local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales remains Neath Port Talbot with 907.8 cases per 100,000 population over seven days, followed by Rhondda Cynon Taf with 862.1 and Caerphilly with 833.4.
Test positivity rates across Wales have reached 15.4%, with Neath Port Talbot having the greatest proportion of tests coming back positive at 19.5% - nearly one in five tests carried out. Positivity rates are higher than 11% in all 22 local authority areas in Wales.
The areas of the country recording the highest numbers of Covid cases in the latest 24-hour period were Cardiff with 388, Carmarthenshire with 219, Caerphilly with 213, Swansea with 212, Rhondda Cynon Taf with 207, Pembrokeshire with 175, Vale of Glamorgan with 160, Torfaen with 153 and Neath Port Talbot with 149.
Meanwhile Flintshire had 128 new cases, Newport had 123, Denbighshire had 113, Bridgend had 104, Wrexham had 100, Gwynedd had 96, Conwy had 83, Monmouthshire with 69 and Anglesey had 60.
The local authorities with the lowest numbers of cases were Merthyr Tydfil with 54, Ceredigion with 46, Powys with 45, and Blaenau Gwent with 43.
As of September 30 there were 621 people in general and acute hospital beds with coronavirus (confirmed, suspected, and recovering) – a drop when compared to the 626 recorded on September 29.
Betsi Cadwaladr UHB had the most Covid patients in general and acute hospital beds on September 30 with 139 followed by Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB with 133, Aneurin Bevan UHB with 132, Cardiff and Vale UHB with 80, Swansea Bay UHB with 59, Hywel Dda UHB with 32, and Powys Teaching Health Board with two.
As of September 30 there were 44 people in invasive ventilated beds in Wales with coronavirus. Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB had the most with 11, while Hywel Dda UHB had nine, Cardiff and Vale UHB had eight, and Swansea Bay UHB had seven, Betsi Cadwaladr UHB had five and Aneurin Bevan UHB had four.
In terms of the vaccination rollout in Wales, the PHW figures show that 2,376,708 people are recorded as having received a first dose of the Covid vaccine and 2,223,545 are recorded as having had both doses.
On Tuesday, the Welsh Government confirmed that a first dose of the vaccine will be offered to all 12 to 15-year-olds in Wales by the end of the October half term.
A spokesman said that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will start to be administered to this age group from Monday, October 4, in mass vaccination centres and some schools. You can read more about that here.
Uptake of the first vaccine dose by priority group (according to PHW):
- Care home residents: 98.1%
- Care home workers: 94.1%
- 80 years and older: 96.2%
- Healthcare workers: 97%
- Social care workers: 44,926 (no percentage available)
- 75-79 years: 97%
- 70-74 years: 96.3%
- Clinically extremely vulnerable 16-69 years: 95%
- 65-69 years: 95.1%
- Clinical risk groups 16-64 years: 90.6%
- 60-64 years: 93.5%
- 55-59 years: 91.8%
- 50-54 years: 90%
- 40-49 years: 85%
- 30-39 years: 78.3%
- 18-29 years: 77.5%
- 16-17 years: 71.3%
Uptake of the second vaccine dose by priority group (according to PHW):
- Care home residents: 96.2%
- Care home workers: 91.2%
- 80 years and older: 95.2%
- Healthcare workers: 95.2%
- Social care workers: 44,320 (no percentage available)
- 75-79 years: 96.2%
- 70-74 years: 95.7%
- Clinically extremely vulnerable 16-69 years: 93.2%
- 65-69 years: 94.2%
- Clinical risk groups 16-64 years: 87.3%
- 60-64 years: 92.3%
- 55-59 years: 90.3%
- 50-54 years: 88%
- 40-49 years: 81.9%
- 30-39 years: 72.7%
- 18-29 years: 69.3%
- 16-17 years: 15.5%
Infection rate for every 100,000 people in each area for the seven days up to September 26:
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
Blaenau Gwent: 741.5 (up from 735.7)
Newport: 689.8 (up from 684)
Caerphilly: 833.4 (up from 848.8)
Torfaen: 658.8 (down from 668.4)
Monmouthshire: 433.4 (up from 428.2)
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Conwy: 573.4 (down from 591.3)
Anglesey: 516.8 (up from 512.5)
Gwynedd: 564.4 (down from 571.6)
Denbighshire: 637.4 (up from 623.9)
Flintshire: 513.1 (down from 532.4)
Wrexham: 424.4 (up from 419.3)
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Cardiff: 567.7 (down from 578.1)
Vale of Glamorgan: 720.9 (down from 741.1)
Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
Merthyr Tydfil: 787.4 (down from 800.6)
Rhondda Cynon Taf: 862.1 (down from 876.6)
Bridgend: 545.4 (down from 552.2)
Hywel Dda University Health Board
Carmarthenshire: 611.3 (down from 619.3)
Pembrokeshire: 447.5 (down from 463.4)
Ceredigion: 444.3 (down from 455.3)
Powys Teaching Health Board
Powys: 432.7 (down from 446.3)
Swansea Bay University Health Board
Neath Port Talbot: 907.8 (down from 935.7)
Swansea: 770.9 (down from 785.4)
Wales total: 638.4 (down from 648.1)
The recent rise in community infection rates is causing huge issues for many NHS services, including in hospital A&E departments, the Welsh Ambulance Service and general practice.
Earlier this month WalesOnline visited both the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend to speak to exhausted staff about current pressures and what they expect to happen this winter. Please click here and here respectively to read those stories.
Meanwhile a frontline paramedic has described the "tidal wave" of patients it is now dealing with as more members of the public opt dial 999 for non-urgent reasons. Please click here to read that one.
And a Welsh GP has shed light on how primary care is dealing with an unrelenting surge in the volume of calls it's receiving as the workforce is stretched to its limits. Please click here to read that story.
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