Eighteen people died of suspected coronavirus in Powys in the week to April 24, figures from Britain's data handling authority have revealed.

While the official figure for deaths where tests have been carried out, published by Public Health Wales, currently stands at nine, the data from the Office for National Statistics indicates that a total of 56 people in Powys have now died after contracting the virus.

The figures show a week-on-week decline in the number of deaths recorded in the county, from 20 in the week to April 17 to 18 in the week to April 24.

The data differs from that published by Public Health Wales for a number of reasons. The health body's figures relate to cases where coronavirus has been confirmed, and only include people who have died in hospital settings in Wales.

As such, this excludes people who have died in hospitals in England, those who have passed away in care homes, and those who died without having been tested to confirm the presence of coronavirus.

The ONS figures refer to all cases in which Covid-19 is mentioned on a death certificate, even where it may not have been the primary cause of death. As such, neither the ONS nor the Public Health Wales figure can be relied upon to be 100 per cent exact.

The latest ONS weekly figures suggest that two people died at home after contracting the disease, seven people died in hospital, and nine people died in care homes. It is the second successive week of figures in which the number of care home deaths recorded by the ONS exceeds the number in hospitals, after 14 cases were recorded in the previous week.

The overall weekly decline may point to slightly better prospects for the county, which accords with the slightly more upbeat message from First Minister Mark Drakeford last week in which he suggested the county was joining the rest of the country in being past the peak of the outbreak.

However, the relatively low numbers involved mean it's probably too soon to be certain of that, particularly given that the figure of 18 is the second highest recorded in Powys during the pandemic.

In a press conference for mid Wales attended by the County Times on Friday, Mr Drakeford said: "The number of patients coming into hospital with coronavirus has stabilised and is showing some signs of falling and we are confident that, because of the actions that everybody has taken, the rate of circulation of coronavirus in the community has been significantly reduced and I think the peak has been modified a bit over the last month."

The figures do, however, show an increase in deaths in hospital, although the number of people passing away in care homes fell week-on-week.

There is no separate data for Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, only for the administrative county of Powys as a whole.