CORONAVIRUS and related deaths in Gwent since the pandemic began topped 900 in the run-up to Christmas, according to the Office for National Statistics.

And the organisation puts the Wales-wide toll - to the week ending December 18 - at 4,368.

Of these, 927 were in the Gwent (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board) area, making it the second highest death toll among Wales' seven health board areas, after neighbouring Cwm Taf Morgannwg (962).

As the number of cases has increased in Gwent since the firebreak lockdown of late October-early November, so the number of deaths has risen too.

This is true of most areas of Wales, though the increase has been much higher in Gwent than in other health board areas of Wales - with the exception of Cwm Taf Morgannwg and more latterly, Swansea Bay.

During the nine weeks from October 23, the deaths of 402 people in Gwent were coronavirus and related, states the ONS,with again, only the Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB area recording a higher number (439).

Of even more concern however, is that the number of deaths in Gwent increased every week for the three weeks to December 18, and the total for those three weeks - 173 - was the highest of any health board area in Wales.

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The Wales-wide number of deaths since the pandemic began, according to the ONS, is 45 per cent (or 1,357 deaths) higher than the Public Health Wales figure (3,011) as of December 18.

The difference in Gwent is 64 per cent, or 362 deaths - Public Health Wales put the deaths the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board to December 18 at 565 - though the two organisations use different measuring methods.

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.

The ONS by contrast, counts all deaths in which coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate, whether as a primary or underlying cause - a measure which gives a wider picture of the impact of the virus in communities - and has consistently put the death toll higher than Public Health Wales.