Covid infection rates reach record levels as over 20,000 new cases are recorded in 48 hours

Covid infection rates in Wales have reached the highest level since the start of the pandemic in March last year.

According to the latest figures released by Public Health Wales, 21,051 people tested positive for the virus in the 48 hours up to 9am yesterday, raising the weekly rate across the country to 1,092.5 cases per 100,000 population.

Cardiff recorded over 2,000 new cases for the latest reporting period and also has the highest weekly case rate in Wales at 1364.1 per 100,000 people.

Overall, 14 of 22 local authorities have case rate in four figures, also including Newport, Torfaen, Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, the Vale of Glamorgan, Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Ceredigion, and Swansea.

The national test positivity rate is up from 31.2% per 100,000 tests to 33.5% since yesterday’s report, with the highest proportion of tests coming back positive in Rhondda Cynon Taf (37.8%), Merthyr Tydfil (36.6%), Bridgend (35.9%), Cardiff (35.4%), and Wrexham (34.9%).

Hospital admissions

As of 30 December, hospital admissions have increased by 36% in the last week, with 604 people currently in general and acute hospital beds with either with confirmed, suspected or recovering from Covid – up from 444 on December 22.

There are also 32 people currently receiving treatment in ventilated intensive care beds, one more than on 22 December.

Three have also been three further deaths due to the virus in the last 48 hours, taking the total number of deaths in Wales since March 2020 to 6,556.

PHW also announced that from today that they would stop reporting separately on Omicron numbers and instead include them in the total Covid figures.