Covid: Blaenau Gwent is the most affected area in the UK

Blaenau Gwent has the highest and fastest growing incidence of Covid-19 infection in the UK.

A case rate of 304.9 positive results per 100,000 cases was reported in the week ending 25 September by Public Health Wales.

Merthyr Tydfil was ranked seventh in the BBC’s latest analysis, while Kerveli was ranked seventh in the local three-week lockdown, one of the areas with the biggest drops.

There were five deaths related to Covid-19 in the last week reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

That’s four more than the previous week and 0.9% of all deaths.

• The council member described him as “reckless” to blame 5G for coronavirus cases

The Office for National Statistics has reported recorded deaths, which include doctors’ suspected Covid-19 cases confirmed by laboratories, and in various places, such as hospitals, nursing homes and at home.

Two deaths were recorded in Flintshire, one in a hospital and the other in a nursing home. Other deaths occurred in the hospital and included patients from Caerphilly, RCT, and Merthyr Tydfil.

GT

The areas most affected are in the United Kingdom

Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in seven days through September 25

• Plainau Joint304.9

• Knowsley280

• Burnley270

• Liverpool262

• Newcastle upon Tyne238

• Bolton232

Sources: PHW / PHE, Scotland and NI, BBC analysis

How bad is the Blaenau Gwent?

It has the fastest case rise in Wales – 304.9 per 100,000 as of September 25 – 213 actual cases, over a period of seven days.

A BBC analysis indicated that it was also the UK’s hardest hit area this week – ahead of Knowsley in Merseyside (280 per 100,000), Burnley (270) and Liverpool (262).

The areas worst affected by high infection rates in recent weeks were in the north of England.

Blaenau Gwent also recorded the highest rate of positive tests in Wales – 10.4% in the last week. Any number higher than 4% is of concern to health officials.

A cluster of cases in the Brainmauer area in particular caused concern and a mobile test unit was set up last week in Nantigelo.

Merrilled Pauley, interim public health director at the Anurien Bevan Health Council, said she hopes “will help us learn more about the infection rate, and help us protect the people of the Plainau Joint.”

CounciI leader Nigel Daniels also urged residents to “do what is needed” and “help fight any second wave of this horrific virus in Wales”.

How does the business do?

Only two people were at the pub on Tuesday lunchtime, said Darren Brace, owner of The Castle in Tredegar, and any other restrictions would be “devastating” for all pubs in town.

“For some of them, there is no going back,” he said. “It seems that we are to blame.

“When you go to supermarkets, where thousands of people pass by their doors every day, and there is no tracking or tracking, or picking up things, I think it is very unfair for the hospitality business to be flagged.”

Michael James has owned a hair salon in town for 37 years, but he said the past two weeks have seen the business “very quiet”.

“People are scared to go out. We are stuck there. Treadmill was not thriving before all this happened,” he added.

“Most of the valley towns are the same. I think a number of stores will close if this continues until March – half of the city might leave.”

How are other regions affected by the Covid virus?

Blaenau Gwent outperformed other valleys chiefs Merthyr Tydfil – which still had more than 227 tests positive per 100,000 and was the 7th worst affected in the UK.

These two local authorities are among those 11 counties, besides the town of Llanelli, which has closed locally.

Caerphilly now has one of the largest declining case rates, standing at 50 cases per 100,000 in the last week and ranking 96th in the UK.

There are also “areas of concern” in other areas, including Conwy and Denbighshire, which have higher case rates than those in Vale of Glamorgan and Neath Port Talbot, where local restrictions already exist.

Prime Minister Mark Drakford is scheduled to meet with North Wales Council leaders at a later time to discuss coronavirus cases in the region.

The case rate per 100,000 people during the past seven days in Conwy is 43.5 and 41.8 in Denbighshire.

The figure for the other four local authorities in North Wales ranges from 12 in Gwynnead to 39.1 in Flintshire.

Part of the reason for restrictions on Vale of Glamorgan and Neath Port Talbot is the high rates of the virus in the vicinity.

It comes to an extension The so-called R-number has risen – an estimate of the incidence rate in Wales.

This measures the average number to which a sick person can transmit the virus – so anything higher than one means it is spreading.

The R is now between 1.0 and 1.4 in Wales, but the real figure is expected to be higher, according to the Welsh government’s Scientific Experts Group, Technical Consulting Cell.

Previously, it was estimated at between 0.7 and 1.2, with Mr. Druckford saying that officials were “confident it was above one.”

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics’ latest weekly death figures show that the total number of coronavirus deaths in the pandemic in Wales as of September 18 was 2,575.

Cardiff saw the highest number of deaths at 389, followed by Ronda Sinon Taff with 303 until September 18, but the rate of increase has slowed dramatically in recent months.

The so-called excess deaths, which compare all recorded deaths to previous years, are less than the five-year average in the last week.

The number of deaths we would normally expect to see at this point in the year is seen as a useful metric of how the pandemic will progress.

In Wales, the number of deaths decreased to 555 in the last week, 20 less than the 2015-19 average.