MORE than 4,000 people in Wales have now died of coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to Public Health Wales.

Yet another unwanted milestone was reached today with the confirmation of 66 further deaths across Wales, including 11 more in Gwent (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area).

The latter figure takes the number of death in Gwent since the pandemic started to 766, with 230 of these confirmed during the past month, again according to Public Health Wales.

There have now been 174,412 confirmed cases in Wales overall, including 35,271 in Gwent. Today's cases in Gwent are: Newport, 75; Caerphilly, 74; Torfaen, 38; Monmouthshire, 30; Blaenau Gwent, 25.

There have now been more than 100,000 people vaccinated against coronavirus in Wales (101,371).

This figure includes more than 10,000 yesterday, which almost doubled the amount vaccinated on Monday.

READ MORE:

Sign up to the South Wales Argus daily coronavirus update email newsletter by registering here.

The all-Wales rolling weekly case rate - to the week ending January 8 - was 416.8, a slight rise after recent reductions.

Torfaen, with a rate to January 8 of 524.7 per 100,000, has the highest rate in Gwent and the fifth highest of Wales' 22 council areas.

Newport (451.9) has the seventh highest rate in Wales. The weekly rate in Blaenau Gwent (429.4) has been falling, reflecting reduced case numbers in recent days, and is now the ninth highest in Wales.

Caerphilly (395.4) has the 11th highest rate in Wales, while Monmouthshire (306.6) has the seventh lowest rate in Wales.

Wrexham (970.9 per 100,000) and Flintshire (710.4) have the two highest rolling weekly case rates in Wales, as the impact of the newer, more infectious strain of coronavirus continues to hit hard in parts of north Wales.

Test positivity rates remain high, with the Wales rate for the week to January 7 being 20.1 per cent.

Two areas of Gwent continue to have test positivity rates higher than that all-Wales average - Torfaen (23 per cent) and Newport (20.6 per cent). The rate in Wrexham is the highest in Wales, at 30.9 per cent.

The newly confirmed cases across Wales today are:

Wrexham - 187

Cardiff - 176

Flintshire - 121

Rhondda Cynon Taf - 100

Swansea - 93

Carmarthenshire - 90

Denbighshire - 77

Newport - 75

Caerphilly - 74

Vale of Glamorgan - 71

Bridgend - 68

Merthyr Tydfil - 45

Torfaen - 38

Conwy - 31

Monmouthshire - 30

Neath Port Talbot - 30

Blaenau Gwent - 25

Pembrokeshire - 24

Ceredigion - 23

Gwynedd - 22

Powys - 18

Anglesey - five

Unknown location - 26

Resident outside Wales - 84

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.