Covid: 4,200 deaths so far in pandemic in Wales

Swansea saw the most deaths of local authority areas in Wales in the most recent week - 31

The total numbers of deaths from Covid-19 in Wales has passed 4,000, according to official figures.

There were 223 deaths registered involving coronavirus in the week ending 11 December.

This was 16 more deaths than the week before and Wales' figures went against the trend in England, which saw a fall in deaths.

Covid represented 27.4% of all deaths in Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The total number of Covid deaths in Wales up to and registered by 11 December was 4,115 deaths, but when deaths registered over the following few days are counted, it takes the total to 4,200.

Rhondda Cynon Taff, with 575 deaths, has the largest number of Covid-19 deaths in Wales, followed by Cardiff with 493, up to the latest week.

Aneurin Bevan health board saw the highest numbers of weekly deaths since the end of April, at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic.

There were 57 deaths - including 36 in hospitals and 17 in care homes.

There were 52 deaths involving Covid in the Swansea Bay health board area, including 38 in hospital and 12 in care homes.

These included 22 hospital deaths of Swansea residents, the 11th highest total across England and Wales, and 16 involving patients from Neath Port Talbot.

It comes as Swansea's biggest hospital warned of a sudden increase in Covid patients.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg area saw deaths fall for a second successive week to 36, although the health board later on Tuesday reported another 25 deaths linked to hospital infections.

This takes the total deaths linked to these outbreaks so far to 261 since October.

There were 13 more deaths in the Royal Glamorgan hospital, nine in the Princess of Wales in Bridgend and three in Prince Charles hospital in Merthyr, in the week up to Monday.

The ONS figures reported 29 deaths in the Hywel Dda health board area - 20 involving hospital patients from Carmarthenshire.

There were 23 deaths in Betsi Cadwaladr in north Wales, 20 deaths involving Covid-19 registered in Cardiff and Vale, and six deaths in Powys.

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Only Gwynedd and Anglesey saw no deaths at all, for the third week in a row.

The 15 deaths in RCT this week took the total mortality rate involving Covid in the area to 239 deaths per 100,000 - now the highest rate in England and Wales - unadjusted for age differences.

What about 'excess deaths'?

So-called excess deaths, which compare all registered deaths with previous years, are above the five-year average.

Looking at the number of deaths we would normally expect to see at this point in the year is seen as a useful measure of how the pandemic is progressing.

In Wales, the number of deaths fell from 836 to 814 in the latest week, which was 121 deaths (17.5%) higher than the five-year average for that week.

There were 44 deaths registered in care homes involving Covid-19 in the past week.

How are these figures worked out?

The ONS reports deaths when Covid-19 is both suspected by doctors, or confirmed by a test, and takes place in care homes, people's homes and hospices, as well as hospitals.

It is estimated that in about 90% of deaths where Covid is mentioned on the death certificate, it is the underlying cause, so death can be described as "due to" Covid.

This takes longer to process than the daily snapshot of deaths reported by Public Health Wales but it is considered as giving a fuller picture.

The number of deaths involving Covid-19 in England fell for the second consecutive week, to 2,530, and numbers fell in all its regions apart from the East Midlands, the east and south-east England.