MORE than 3,000 new cases of coronavirus in Gwent have been confirmed today - among almost 11,500 across Wales - after Public Health Wales figures were updated to include those that have gone unreported amid recent data system issues.

The updated figures reveal the full and deeply worrying extent to which coronavirus has continued to spread in almost all of Wales during December.

The cases have not been formally reported until today because planned maintenance of the NHS Welsh Laboratory Information Management System last week - when service upgrades took place - had led to what Public Health Wales called "significant under-reporting of Lighthouse Laboratory testing".

Lighthouse Labs are part of the network of labs that process coronavirus test results.

Public Health Wales said yesterday that most of the cases were from the period December 9-15.

The update means that the total number of cases confirmed in Wales by Public Health Wales since the pandemic began now stands at 114,566 - and 23,351 of these are from Gwent.

Today's updates add the following cases to the totals in Gwent's five council areas: Caerphilly, 986 (total 7,850); Newport, 830 (5,897); Blaenau Gwent, 473 (3,963); Torfaen, 462 (3,399); Monmouthshire, 261 (2,242).

Fifty-two more deaths due to coronavirus have been reported across Wales today, including five in Gwent.

The Wales-wide death toll since the pandemic began is now 2,973, according to Public Health Wales, including 556 in Gwent.

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The affect of the aforementioned system maintenance has also had an effect on rolling weekly case rates data in recent days. But this too has now been updated and makes for stark reading.

The all-Wales rolling weekly case rate - for the week to December 12 - is 530.2 per 100,000 population.

Three parts of Gwent now have rolling weekly case rates for the same period, of more than 700 per 100,000, with two of these homing in on 800 per 100,000.

The latest Gwent case rates are: Newport, 797.8 per 100,000 (fourth highest in Wales); Blaenau Gwent, 790.1 (fifth highest in Wales); Caerphilly, 760.5 (sixth highest in Wales); Torfaen 672.6 (ninth highest in Wales; Monmouthshire, 384.8 (13th highest in Wales).

Merthyr Tydfil currently has the highest case rate in Wales, at 1,032.7 per 100,000.

More than one-in-five people (21.2 per cent) tested for coronavirus in Wales in the week to December 12 returned a positive test, and in many areas the proportion was higher.

These include four areas of Gwent: Caerphilly (26.4 per cent); Newport (24.3 per cent); Blaenau Gwent (23.5 per cent); Torfaen (21.3 per cent).

Public Health Wales figures include reports of the deaths of hospitalised patients in Welsh hospitals, or care home residents, where Covid-19 has been confirmed with a positive laboratory test and the clinician suspects this was a causative factor in the death.

They do not include people who may have died of Covid-19 but who were not confirmed by laboratory testing, those who died in other settings, or Welsh residents who died outside of Wales, and the true number of Covid-19 deaths will be higher.

The Office for National Statistics - which counts all deaths in which coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate - puts the number of deaths in Wales much higher.