Covid: No deaths recorded across 16 Wales counties

Bridgend was one of only six counties to record any Covid deaths

There were deaths involving Covid-19 in only six Welsh council areas, the latest week of figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

Deaths overall were also below normal levels for a ninth week in succession.

The number of deaths where Covid was mentioned on death certificates dropped to seven in the week ending 30 April - half the previous week's total and the lowest for more than seven months.

These accounted for 1.2% of all registered deaths in Wales.

It is a further indication of the retreat of Covid, which has resulted in low case numbers and falling hospital cases.

The trend has been for a steady decline in deaths and the weekly total is 93% fewer than registered two months ago.

Where did deaths occur?

There were no deaths in 16 out of Wales' local authority areas, including across the whole of the Hywel Dda and Powys health board areas.

When broken down by local authority area, there were:

• Two deaths in Bridgend, in a hospital and a care home

• One death each in hospitals in Cardiff, Gwynedd, Swansea and Torfaen

• A death in a care home in Vale of Glamorgan

Deaths continue to be below average

So-called excess deaths, which compare all registered deaths with previous years, are now below the five-year average for the ninth successive week.

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

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The number of deaths from all causes in Wales fell to 582 in the week ending 30 April. This was 80 deaths fewer than the five-year average.

That below average proportion (-12.1%) is greater in Wales than in England or any of its regions for this week. But deaths were below average in every part of the UK.

When looking across the course of the pandemic so far, there have been 43,626 deaths from all causes, 7,867 (18%) mentioning Covid-19 on the death certificate. This was 5,665 deaths above the five-year average.

When deaths occurring up to 30 April but counting later registrations are included, the total number of deaths involving Covid rises to 7,869.

Meanwhile, a separate report by ONS looking at pandemic deaths in the care sector found the highest proportion of care home deaths involving Covid during the second wave was in Wales.

It found 28.8% of deaths in care homes involved Covid in the period since early September. This compared to about 21% of care home deaths during the first wave,

Deaths in care homes from all causes were 24.2% above average over the course of 2020, according to further ONS analysis, published at the end of last week.

It showed 1,339 excess deaths in care homes over the course of last year. The two waves of the pandemic saw nearly 159% more care home deaths than normal in April and 37.3% more in December.