Six new cases of coronavirus have today been confirmed in Powys by Public Health Wales, taking the county past the 500 mark for the number of positive tests since the outbreak began.

There have now been 500 lab-confirmed cases of the virus in Powys since the outbreak of the pandemic, after the lastest incidents were confirmed in the latest figures released today.

Public Health Wales confirmed that five of the cases dated from tests on Monday, September 28, and one was from the previous day, September 27.

No more people in Powys have died from the virus, according to Public Health Wales, which puts the number of confirmed deaths of people due the virus at 15.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics, considered a stronger indicator of the overall impact of the virus, and which are based on all deaths where Covid is mentioned on the death certificate, stand at 95, where it has remained since mid-August.

Powys stats:

Confirmed cases – 500

New cases in October 1 data – six

Rate of new cases per 100,000 in week to September 27 – 21.9

Rate of new cases per 100,000 in week to September 20 – 7.6

Powys position among Welsh local authorities for rate of new cases – 18th out of 22

The national picture

Across Wales, another 398 Covid cases were confirmed in Wednesday's figures, meaning that 24,383 people are now known to have contracted the coronavirus since the pandemic began.

The latest figures, however, may understate the level of new cases as some test results have been delayed.

There were six newly-reported deaths, meaning the number of people to have died with confirmed cases of coronavirus at 1,622 in Wales.

New local lockdowns come into force in Denbighshire, Flintshire, Conwy and Wrexham today.

Public Health Wales' statement

Dr Robin Howe, incident director for the Covid-19 outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “We remind people living in areas of Wales where there are currently no restrictions in place to remember, at all times, the importance of adhering to the regulations to prevent further local restrictions.

“The new restrictions mean that people living in the affected areas will not be allowed to enter or leave their local authority area without a reasonable excuse.

“They will not be able to meet indoors with anyone they do not live with for the time being – extended households (sometimes called a ‘bubble’) are suspended for the time being.

“Pubs, restaurants and other licensed premises must stop selling alcohol at 10pm, and offer table service only. Off licenses, including supermarkets and other retail outlets, must also stop selling alcohol at 10pm.

“People who can work from home must do so. Those who cannot reasonably work from home can continue to travel to a place of work, whether that is within our outside the areas affected by local restrictions.

“Details of these rules for each local authority area can be found on the Welsh Government website.

“We are also seeing an increase in the number of people who are seriously ill and have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19.

“We are concerned that much of the good work conducted over the past few months is at risk of going to waste. If the situation continues to worsen, we may find ourselves at the same levels of infection that we experienced earlier this year in March and April, and with that comes the potential for more extended restrictions to be imposed nationally.

“Approximately 2,000 test results (which will include both positive and negative results) from the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s Lighthouse labs have been delayed. This means that today’s test numbers will be an underestimate of the true picture of Coronavirus in Wales. This is beyond our control, and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. The number of tests will in likelihood increase disproportionately over the coming days as the backlog of test results are incorporated into our reporting.”