WALES has recorded its biggest daily number of confirmed new coronavirus cases since the end of March today.

There have been 223 new cases confirmed today, including 21 in Gwent, though no deaths have been recorded in Wales for the second day in a row.

The increase comes amid rising concerns over the spread of the Delta - formerly known as the Indian - variant in Wales, on the heels of it gaining a foothold in England and other parts of the UK.

There is also likely to be an element of increased cases as Wales, along with the rest of the UK, continues to ease lockdown measures

Rolling weekly case rates have also risen slightly in Wales recently, though these always run several days behind, so today's increase in cases will not be reflected in these until early next week.

Today's newly confirmed Gwent cases are: Newport - eight; Torfaen, seven; Blaenau Gwent - three; Monmouthshire - two; Caerphilly - one.

The rolling weekly case rate in Wales - to June 4, the latest available - rose slightly again, to 11.2 per 100,000 people. The rate in Gwent to the same date, is 8.1 cases per 100,000.

Case rates are on the rise in a number of areas in Wales - but with these rates continuing to be low, small fluctuations in new case numbers can have a big effect - often on a daily basis - on an area's rolling weekly case rate.

The number of cases confirmed in Wales since the pandemic began currently stands at 213,411, including 41,881 in Gwent, according to Public Health Wales.

In Wales, 2,190,460 people have now had a first dose of coronavirus vaccine - as at the end of yesterday - and 1,291,699 have now completed their two-dose vaccine course.

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Caerphilly (3.9 per 100,000) has the lowest rolling weekly case rate in Gwent and the fourth lowest in Wales, for the week to June 4. Blaenau Gwent (5.7 per 100,000) has the seventh lowest rate in Wales, and Monmouthshire (8.5) has the 10th lowest rate.

Newport (12.3) has, the seventh highest rate in Wales, to June 4, and Torfaen (10.6) has the 11th highest rate in Wales.

The highest rolling weekly case rate in Wales, to June 4 is 30.7 per 100,000, in Conwy.

The Wales-wide test positivity rate for the week to June 4 is 1.2 per cent. Newport (1.3 per cent) has the highest test positivity rate in Gwent.

The confirmed new cases today in Wales are:

Conwy - 27

Cardiff - 25

Swansea - 23

Carmarthenshire - 19

Neath Port Talbot - 12

Vale of Glamorgan - 10

Flintshire - nine

Rhondda Cynon Taf - nine

Newport - eight

Denbighshire - eight

Wrexham - eight

Torfaen - seven

Gwynedd - seven

Pembrokeshire - seven

Bridgend - five

Ceredigion - four

Blaenau Gwent - three

Anglesey - three

Powys - three

Monmouthshire - two

Caerphilly - one

Merthyr Tydfil - one

Unknown location - three

Resident outside Wales - 19

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.