Wales is now over a month into its third wave of the pandemic and there are promising signs.
Though Covid cases are growing very quickly in Wales ( you can see the full scale here ), there are reasons for some optimism.
Across Wales the seven-day Covid infection rate has now risen to 95.6 cases per 100,000 people in Wales, with more people coming forward for testing every day.
But cases were always going to rise as we reopened, the real test was how much it affected the NHS and the impact of long Covid.
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WalesOnline has gone through the data from the second wave of the pandemic and the latest wave to see how they compare in terms of cases, deaths and hospitalisations.
In order to do this we have measured the second wave as starting on August 13 (when cases started to rise for seven consecutive days) and have measured the third wave as starting on May 29.
So how do they compare?
In terms of cases, this wave is tracking higher than the second wave. This is understandable as cases were starting from a lower level last summer and rules are more relaxed now compared to then.
When it comes to people in hospital with Covid the figures are much more promising, with numbers hardly changing in the last month.
Speaking at Monday's Welsh Government press conference, health minister Eluned Morgan said: "We are increasingly confident this wave will not cause the same level of serious illness and harm as the previous waves we have experienced in Wales.
"This is thanks in large part to our fantastic vaccination programme, which has been delivered by the NHS."
When it comes to deaths the figures are also promising but more time needs to pass before we know for sure that this wave is not tracking in a similar way to previous ones.
Mr Drakeford indicated that this third wave is likely to peak in August but that it is not fully understood how much the vaccine will help to reduce the risk of serious illness.
He said: "In previous waves there has always been a lag between infections in the community and an increase in hospitalisations and deaths. If this wave follows the same pattern, we can expect to see these peaking in August.
"What we don’t yet know is what impact our high rates of vaccination will have and how much the relationship between infections and hospitalisations has been weakened."
To get the latest coronavirus stats where you live, go here.
