Thirteen more people have died with coronavirus in Wales according to latest figures from Public Health Wales (PHW).
The data published on Thursday, October 21 also revealed there were 4,240 new positive cases, bringing the total number since the pandemic began to 412,534.
The 13 new additional deaths recorded brings the overall toll within 28 days of a positive Covid test to 6,063 in Wales.
The latest seven-day infection rate across Wales based on the cases for every 100,000 people (seven days up to October 16) now stands at 651.9 – a sharp rise from the 617 reported on Wednesday .
Wales has by far the highest Covid infection rate in the UK. In comparison, Scotland's seven-day infection rate is 316.5, England's 447.9 and Northern Ireland's is 473.3. The rate of people being taken into hospital with Covid also appears to be starting to rise.
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The local authority with the highest infection rate in Wales is now Blaenau Gwent with a whopping 1,046 cases per 100,000 population over seven days, followed by Torfaen with 940.8 and Caerphilly with 874.2.
Blaenau Gwent is now the local authority with the highest infection rate in the UK. The highest in England is Bath and North East Somerset with 877.
The test positivity rate across Wales has risen to 22.1%, meaning more than a fifth of all those getting tests are coming back positive. Nearly a third of people in Blaenau Gwent are having their test come back positive (29.2%) - the highest of any local authority - with Caerphilly and Neath Port Talbot not far behind at 27.1%.
The areas of the country recording the highest numbers of Covid cases in the latest 24-hour period were Cardiff with 596, Caerphilly with 381, RCT with 352, Newport with 247, Vale of Glamorgan with 244, Neath Port Talbot with 225, Swansea with 199 and Pembrokeshire with 193.
Meanwhile Powys and Bridgend both had 173 new cases, Carmarthenshire had 163, Monmouthshire had 144, Blaenau Gwent had 140, Gwynedd had 134, Denbighshire and Flintshire had 126 and Torfaen had 115.
The local authorities with the lowest numbers of cases included Ceredigion with 106, Conwy with 92, Wrexham with 87, Merthyr Tydfil with 79 and Anglesey with 45.
As of October 20 there were 673 people in general and acute hospital beds with coronavirus (confirmed, suspected, and recovering), a rise on the 656 reported the day before.
Aneurin Bevan UHB had the most Covid patients in general and acute hospital beds on October 20 with 168 followed by Cardiff and Vale UHB with 120, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB with 110, Betsi Cadwaladr UHB with 103, Swansea Bay UHB with 91 and Hywel Dda UHB with 81.
As of October 20 there were 53 people in invasive ventilated beds in Wales with coronavirus. Swansea Bay UHB had 13, Betsi Cadwaladr UHB had 12, Aneurin Bevan UHB and Hywel Dda UHB had eight, Cwm Taf Morgannwgh UHB had seven, and Cardiff and Vale UHB had five.
On Thursday Public Health Wales figures showed that 2,420,558 people have had one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 2,238,258 have had both doses.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is now being administered to 12 to 15-year-olds in mass vaccination centres and some schools. You can read more about that here. Meanwhile Public Health Wales said data on the number of people receiving the booster jabs will be made available next week.
Uptake of the first vaccine dose by priority group (according to PHW):
- Severely immunosuppressed: 98.6%
- Care home residents: 98.2%
- Care home workers: 94.2%
- 80 years and older: 96.2%
- Healthcare workers: 97.1%
- Social care workers: 45,741 (no percentage available)
- 75-79 years: 97%
- 70-74 years: 96.3%
- Clinically extremely vulnerable 16-69 years: 95.3%
- 65-69 years: 95.1%
- Clinical risk groups 12-64 years: 89.9%
- 60-64 years: 93.5%
- 55-59 years: 91.8%
- 50-54 years: 90%
- 40-49 years: 85.1%
- 30-39 years: 78.5%
- 18-29 years: 77.9%
- 16-17 years: 74.1%
- 12-15 years: 32%
Uptake of the second vaccine dose by priority group (according to PHW):
Severely immunosuppressed: 97.2%
- Care home residents: 96.7%
- Care home workers: 91.5%
- 80 years and older: 95.3%
- Healthcare workers: 95.5%
- Social care workers: 45,195 (no percentage available)
- 75-79 years: 96.3%
- 70-74 years: 95.8%
- Clinically extremely vulnerable 16-69 years: 93.6%
- 65-69 years: 94.3%
- Clinical risk groups 12-64 years: 86%
- 60-64 years: 92.4%
- 55-59 years: 90.4%
- 50-54 years: 88.2%
- 40-49 years: 82.2%
- 30-39 years: 73.4%
- 18-29 years: 70.3%
- 16-17 years: 23.7%
- 12-15 years: 0.3%
Infection rate for every 100,000 people in each area for the seven days up to October 15:
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
Blaenau Gwent: 1,046.3 (up from 861.7)
Newport: 724.4 (up from 639.4)
Caerphilly: 874.2 (up from 772.6)
Torfaen: 940.8 (up from 878)
Monmouthshire: 694.6 (up from 651.2)
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Conwy: 395 (up from 389.1)
Anglesey: 524 (down from 538.2)
Gwynedd: 447.2 (up from 442.4)
Denbighshire: 611.3 (up from 601.9)
Flintshire: 370.9 (down from 380.5)
Wrexham: 384.7 (down from 386.9)
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Cardiff: 800.8 (up from 795.3)
Vale of Glamorgan: 824.2 (up from 778.5)
Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
Merthyr Tydfil: 641.5 (up from 565.3)
Rhondda Cynon Taf: 656.1 (up from 583.6)
Bridgend: 492.4 (up from 454.3)
Hywel Dda University Health Board
Carmarthenshire: 606 (up from 594.9)
Pembrokeshire: 759 (down from 767.8)
Ceredigion: 353.5 (up from 338.4)
Powys Teaching Health Board
Powys: 593.5 (up from 567.8)
Swansea Bay University Health Board
Neath Port Talbot: 851.3 (up from 741.7)
Swansea: 549 (down from 554.3)
Wales total: 651.9 (up from 617)
On Thursday the Welsh Government unveiled its NHS winter plan in which an extra £40m was given to social care to help ease the pressure on hospital beds. This comes on top of £248m already announced for the NHS Covid recovery fund. To read more about it please go here.
Meanwhile it is now mandatory for people to show Covid passes before entering nightclubs and mass events in Wales.
Under the new law evidence of full vaccination or a negative Covid test within 48 hours will be required when visiting nightclubs or large events.
The plan is now in force at:
- Nightclubs;
- Indoor, non-seated events for more than 500 people, such as concerts or conventions;
- Outdoor non-seated events for more than 4,000 people;
- Any setting or event with more than 10,000 people in attendance.
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