NEWPORT currently has the highest rolling weekly case rate for coronavirus in Wales - to April 23, the latest available, though the rate in Wales as a whole reached its lowest point, for the same period, since last August.

The Newport rate for the week to April 23 was 27.2 cases per 100,000 people, while the Wales rate was more than half that, at 11.9 per 100,000.

It is worth stressing that case rates Wales-wide have fallen massively since the dark days of the second wave of coronavirus, in the early days of January, and Newport is no exception, though more recently the city's rate has not fallen as much as those in other parts of Wales.

The rate for Gwent as a whole, to April 23 is 12.8 per 100,000, though again, it must be pointed out that with case numbers and rates so low, small fluctuations in cases can have a bigger effect on rates.

Nine new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed across Gwent today - five in Caerphilly county borough, and two each in Newport and Torfaen - out of 35 in Wales.

There have been no new confirmed deaths due to coronavirus in Gwent for 10 days, and no new deaths have been confirmed in other parts of Wales for the second day in a row.

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The number of cases confirmed in Wales since the pandemic began now stands at 211,389, including 41,484 in Gwent, while the number of deaths in Wales now stands at 5,548, including 959 in Gwent - all according to Public Health Wales.

The number of first doses of coronavirus vaccine administered in Wales rose by more than 15,000 yesterday, to 1,800,428. And more than 14,000 people had their second dose yesterday, taking to 715,425 the number who have now completed their two-dose vaccine courses.

Monmouthshire (5.3 per 100,000) has the lowest rolling weekly case rate in Gwent and the fifth lowest rate of Wales' 22 council areas, to April 23. Caerphilly (7.7) has the ninth lowest rate in Wales, and Blaenau Gwent (8.6) has the 11th lowest. Torfaen (9.6) has the 11th highest rate in Wales.

More than half (12) of Wales' council areas currently have rolling weekly case rates below 10 per 100,000.

The Wales-wide test positivity rate for the week to April 23 is 1.3 per cent. Newport (2.6 per cent) has the highest test positivity rate in Gwent.

The confirmed new cases for the past two days across Wales are:

Cardiff - nine

Caerphilly - five

Wrexham - three

Newport - two

Torfaen - two

Gwynedd - two

Pembrokeshire - two

Swansea - two

Flintshire - one

Vale of Glamorgan - one

Rhondda Cynon Taf - one

Carmarthenshire - one

Ceredigion - one

Neath Port Talbot - one

Blaenau Gwent - none

Monmouthshire - none

Anglesey - none

Conwy - none

Denbighshire - none

Bridgend - none

Merthyr Tydfil - none

Powys - none

Unknown location - two

Resident outside Wales - none

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.