Covid-19: Watch how cases rose and fell in Wales' hotspots

Covid-19 case rates in south Wales have been showing big improvements in the last couple of weeks, as lockdown restrictions look to be having an effect.

Public Health Wales said it was confident there was a "consistent downward" trend although numbers were still high and putting pressures on hospitals.

The south Wales valleys, Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot have perhaps seen the most dramatic reductions.

These include areas which posted the highest case rates in the UK during the period leading up to Christmas.

Merthyr Tydfil continues to fall from a peak of 1,349 cases per 100,000 and the UK's highest a week before Christmas. It now has less than 200 cases per 100,000 for the first time since September.

There has been a large fall in case rates in Blaenau Gwent as well - from 1,020 cases per 100,000 in mid-December to its lowest rate since early October.

There are also encouraging signs in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT), where the case rate has dropped below 200 per 100,000 - also its lowest point since September.

In Bridgend, the case rate peaked just before Wales was put into a pre-Christmas lockdown on 18 December.

But it has fallen back sharply and is just under 226 cases per 100,000 for the first time since the end of November. Its positivity rate has also dropped to below 17%.

Similar patterns can be seen in Neath Port Talbot (NPT) - at its lowest point for case rates since mid-October.

The chief medical officer said the size of the current outbreak is "shrinking rather than growing", but added that rates were still "way too high".