MORE than 2,000 cases of the Covid Delta variant have been recorded in Gwent.

In the seven day period up to August 17 there were 1,981 new cases of the variant recorded by Public Health Wales across the country.

That number includes 317 cases in Gwent.

The figure for the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is the second highest among Welsh health boards for the week, behind Betsi Cadwaladr in North Wales.

Newport saw the most Delta cases in the seven day period in Gwent with 98.

While there 92 new cases in Caerphilly.

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Torfaen saw 45 Delta variant cases, Blaenau Gwent saw 43, and 39 were recorded in Monmouthshire.

There have now been 2,133 Delta variant cases across Gwent.

The totals for each local authority are:

  • Blaenau Gwent - 216
  • Caerphilly - 619
  • Monmouthshire - 288
  • Newport - 594
  • Torfaen - 416

The latest figures are the first to encapsulate a full week since restrictions were eased in Wales, and don't show a large increase in Delta cases.

When restrictions were announced, first minister said he did not "expect" lockdown restrictions to be reinstated in Wales, but added that the Welsh Government would act to protect people's lives again if needed.

Mr Drakeford said: “The success of our vaccination programme really does mean that the link between falling ill on the one hand and being so ill that you have to be in a hospital has been really eroded.

“It’s not been eliminated, but it’s been radically eroded.

“While the vaccine programme goes on giving us that defence, I don’t expect that we will have to return to the sorts of restrictions that we saw at the beginning of this year.

“But nobody can rule out the surprises, the awful surprises that this virus has had up its sleeve, and, if there were to be a sudden change for the worse that we can’t anticipate, then of course the Welsh Government would act again to protect the lives of people in Wales.”