EIGHT new coronavirus deaths have been confirmed today in Gwent, among 44 across Wales, according to Public Health Wales.

The new deaths bring the total since the pandemic began to 848 in Gwent and more than 4,500 across Wales.

There were 12 new deaths confirmed today in the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board area (north Wales), 11 in the Cardiff & Vale UHB area, seven in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB area, four in the Hywel Dda UHB area (west Wales), and two in the Swansea Bay UHB area.

A further 796 cases have been confirmed today in Wales, again by Public Health Wales, including 126 in Gwent, as follows: Caerphilly, 45; Newport, 37; Torfaen, 22; Monmouthshire, 15; Blaenau Gwent, seven.

There have now been 187,711 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Wales since the pandemic began, including 37,375 in Gwent.

Rolling weekly case rates have continued to fall, across Wales as a whole.

The number of people who have received a first dose of coronavirus vaccine in Wales is now 264, 538, including almost 24,000 yesterday.

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 19 - was 245.1 per 100,000 population, down again. The rate seven days earlier was 322.

Newport, with a rate to January 19 of 315.5 per 100,000. This is well down on rates through much of the autumn and into January, but it remains the highest rate in Gwent and has stalled at around this level for several days. It is now the third highest rate in Wales out of 22 council areas.

Torfaen (233.1) has the 10th highest rate in Wales, and Caerphilly (208.8) the 13th highest.

The rate for the week to January 19 in Blaenau Gwent (158.9) is the fourth lowest in Wales, while Monmouthshire (141.7) now has the lowest rolling weekly case rate in Wales.

Wrexham (564.1 per 100,000) and Flintshire (425.4) have the two highest rolling weekly case rates in Wales, though the trend in these two areas in recent days is downward too.

The test positivity rate across Wales for the week to January 19 15.7 per cent, or fewer than one-in-six people tested returning a positive result for coronavirus. This again, while being too high, is falling. Newport - 17.4 per cent is the only part of Gwent to record a higher test positivity rate for the same period.

The newly confirmed cases across Wales today are:

Flintshire - 119

Wrexham - 82

Cardiff - 78

Caerphilly - 45

Bridgend - 38

Newport - 37

Swansea - 37

Rhondda Cynon Taf - 33

Denbighshire - 27

Gwynedd - 27

Carmarthenshire - 26

Neath Port Talbot - 26

Torfaen - 22

Powys - 22

Vale of Glamorgan - 21

Pembrokeshire - 21

Conwy - 18

Monmouthshire - 15

Anglesey - 13

Merthyr Tydfil - eight

Blaenau Gwent - seven

Ceredigion - two

Unknown location - 18

Resident outside Wales - 54

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.