BLAENAU Gwent is seeing the fastest growth in coronavirus case rates of anywhere in the country.

In the last seven days, the locked-down authority has seen 307.7 cases per 100,000 residents.

That is by far the highest in Gwent, and more than double the rate found in Caerphilly when it was locked down.

Since the county borough went in to lockdown on September 7, it has seen its rate slowly decrease from 119.3 to 50.8 over the last seven days.

Newport has also seen a reduction in the case rate since lockdown was imposed - dropping from 63.4 to 51.1.

Speaking in the Senedd yesterday, Mark Drakeford said there were early signs the situation is Newport was starting to stabilise "thanks to the efforts of local people".

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Daily figures on the spread of Covid-19 "have continued to show a small but sustained fall in the number of cases" in the Newport area, the first minister added.

"I'm hugely grateful, both to the citizens of Newport – but also to local authority officers and the police service – for everything they are doing to help people to do the right things," Mr Drakeford said.

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However, the rate of cases in Blaenau Gwent has continued to increase.

Three weeks ago the number of cases per 100,000 people was 37.2.

That grew to 143.1 two weeks ago, and then 254.8 last week.

Over the last seven days the rate is now 307.7, which puts it as the highest in Wales.

The next highest being Merthyr Tydfil at 217.2 and Rhondda Cynon Taf at 166.2.

Torfaen, the other Gwent county in lockdown has a rate of 47.9 over the last seven days.

The case rate across Wales as a whole is 69.8.

At the lower end of the scale, only Pembrokeshire, Gwynedd and Anglesey have lower rates than Monmouthshire, which over the last seven days has recorded 16.9 cases for every 100,000 residents.