POWYS has seen two new cases of coronavirus reported in the last day – the first new cases in the county since Friday.

Today’s two cases break a four-day cycle from Friday, April 30, to Monday, May 3, of there being no new Covid-19 cases reported across the region, as rates continue to fall nationwide. Powys’ case rate per 100,000 people in the week up to April 28 is as low as 4.5. The total number of Powys cases since the pandemic began is now 4,179.

The number of deaths in Powys remains at 66, according to Public Health Wales (PHW) figures, with that number at 268 according to more accurate Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.

Five other of Wales’ 22 local authority areas recorded no new cases today.

From now on we will be moving our daily Covid stats to a twice weekly update, on a Friday and a Tuesday.

Powys stats:

Confirmed cases – 4,179

New cases in May 4 data – 2

Rate of new cases per 100,000 in week to April 28 – 4.5

Powys position among Welsh local authorities for rate of new cases – joint 8th out of 22

Powys Teaching Health Board vaccine total doses – 131,000

PTHB first doses – 91,300

PTHB second doses – 40,000

Newly-confirmed cases day-by-day:

Tuesday, May 4 – 2

Monday, May 3 – 0

Sunday, May 2 – 0

Saturday, May 1 – 0

Friday, April 30 – 0

Thursday, April 29 – 3

Wednesday, April 28 – 0

Tuesday, April 27 – 0

The national picture:

Wales has reported one further Covid-related death in the last 24 hours – taking the total number of people who have died with coronavirus since the start of the pandemic to 5,551.

PHW confirmed 65 new cases today, which sees figures for the total number of cases in Wales rise to 211,638 people since the start of the pandemic.

Public Health Wales' statement:

Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the coronavirus outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “As of yesterday, Monday May 3, further relaxation of the regulations came into place, meaning that Wales is now in Alert Level 3.

“Two households can again form an exclusive extended household ‘bubble’ and can spend time indoors together. Supervised indoor activities for children can resume, along with indoor organised activities for up to 15 adults (such as exercise classes and swimming lessons) and community centres can reopen.

“People should observe social distancing when meeting with others from outside their household or bubble.

“We would remind the general public that it is still extremely important to follow social distancing and hygiene measures to prevent the transmission of coronavirus. That is, staying 2m from anyone you don’t live with, washing hands regularly and wearing face coverings in indoor settings.”