Covid hospital admissions in Wales hit record low
- Published
The average number of Covid patients in hospital beds in the last week is also at a record low
The number of Covid-19 admissions into Wales' hospitals has hit record low levels.
There were six confirmed and suspected Covid patients admitted on Tuesday - all in Cardiff and Vale health board - a record low during the pandemic.
On Monday, Cwm Taf health board had its first Covid admission in a month, according to the updated figures from Digital Health and Care Wales, external.
No other health board has had a Covid admission for two days.
Cardiff and Vale has been responsible for most Covid admissions in the past week or so, but the health board said Covid cases remained low.
Most of its admissions have been attributed to patients in the emergency unit who were tested after reporting a Covid symptom.
They are then flagged as suspected until the majority are ruled out by a test.
These are the first set of NHS Wales hospital figures for nearly a week and cover the May bank holiday weekend.
On 1 June, admissions to hospitals of confirmed and suspected Covid-19 cases were running at a daily seven-day average of 14. The record low was 12 on 20 May.
Covid admissions now make up 1.3% of all hospital admissions
On 1 June, there were 138 Covid patients in hospital beds with the daily average of 148, the lowest during the pandemic.
These include both recovering patients and those suspected of having Covid but waiting for test results.
When we just look at confirmed Covid patients, there were 11 across hospitals in Wales. Swansea Bay had four, there were two each in Betsi Cadwaladr and Cardiff and Vale and one each in Aneurin Bevan, Hywel Dda and Cwm Taf Morgannwg.
This is a 99.3% fall from the peak in January.
Cardiff and Vale also has 56% of the suspected Covid patients in Wales' hospital beds.
Three people with confirmed or suspected Covid were being treated on invasive ventilated beds, including in critical care, on Tuesday. The number dropped to one on 20 May.
This is 98% fewer Covid patients than in mid-January. Cardiff and Vale had two critically ill Covid patients and Betsi Cadwaladr one, with none elsewhere.
Non-Covid critical patients outnumbered Covid patients by 47 to one.
A heart made up of the names of people who died of Covid on a mountain above the Rhondda valley
Deaths continue to be low
Meanwhile, the number of deaths involving Covid-19 was seven in the latest week, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is up by one on the previous week, but the figures in this period are the lowest we have seen since early September and accounted for 1.2% of all deaths.
The trend has been for a steady decline and is 78% fewer Covid deaths than registered two months ago.
During the latest week, up to 21 May, there were no deaths in 15 of Wales' 22 local authority areas, including across the Aneurin Bevan, Powys and Swansea Bay health board areas.
When broken down by council area, there were six hospital deaths of people from Anglesey, Gwynedd, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf, and a home death of a Vale of Glamorgan resident.
There were no deaths involving Covid in care homes for the first time since early October.
So-called excess deaths, which compare all registered deaths with previous years, are back below average - 30 deaths (4.7%) below the five-year average.
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.
The number of deaths from all causes in Wales fell to 605 in the week ending 21 May.
Only Northern Ireland, Yorkshire/Humber and north-west England saw above average deaths in the UK's nations and regions.
The total number of deaths during the pandemic involving Covid in Wales now stands at 7,883.
- Published2 June 2021
- Published28 May
