How has Covid eased in Wales? In charts

As Covid-19 restrictions are set to ease again in Wales, what steps have led us to this point?

Outdoor concerts, festivals and sporting events can resume from Monday, the first minister has confirmed.

It comes as the Welsh Government pushes for more people to get vaccinated.

Policy-makers and health officials have been looking at key measures in making decisions. Here is some of the data that have taken us to this point in the road out of lockdown.

Cases are the lowest since August

Cardiff city centre - and signs of an easing off

If you go back to the days before Wales went into lockdown last December, Covid cases were peaking at 2,864 positive tests a day.

The average is now 36 positive tests a day.

All council areas have been below the key 50 cases per 100,000 threshold for two months.

Thousands of people are still being tested every week - including routinely in care homes and hospitals - but the proportion of tests coming back positive has been 1% or less for a month.

The key indicator is this positivity rate to be below 5%.

You can see in the video above how clusters and local spikes can still happen, even with cases low, but compared with the winter, the impact of the vaccination programme is clear.

Infections low but 'early signs' of a rise

A quiet word of caution could be heard on Friday though. There are "early signs" of an increase in Covid infections in Wales, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) weekly swab survey.

It estimates that 2,900 people in Wales had Covid in the week ending 29 May.

That's still only around one in 1,050 people or 0.10% of the population.

Last week, the estimate was 800 or one in 3,850 people - 0.03% - the lowest figure yet.

The ONS has been taking swab tests from thousands of people in Wales every week since the summer, to estimate the level of infections. It catches people who may have Covid-19 but do not realise it.

High proportion have protection from antibodies

Well over three quarters of people in Wales are now estimated to have antibodies against Covid-19.

The level of protection, from people who have either had the virus or a vaccination against it, has been the main weapon in the fight against Covid.

Importantly, 90% in those more vulnerable age groups - as the second doses of vaccines kick in - have antibodies, according to the most recent survey by the ONS.

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World-leading on vaccines

The Welsh government has said it is ahead in its commitment to offer every adult a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine by the end of July and it remains a priority,

The challenge now for Wales - leading the world on first doses of the population - is to continue its push on second doses.

Two thirds of those aged in their early 60s have had two doses and the programme is now working through those in their 50s.

The UK nations have roughly converged on the proportions of people fully vaccinated, with Wales just behind Scotland and England.

Wales, as well as leading global figures for the proportion of first doses, is also still in the current "top 10" in the world for second doses of vaccinations too.

Mark Drakeford has said health boards have the ability to "speed up" second doses if needed to combat local clusters, especially given the presence of the Delta/India variant.

And with the majority of the 54 cases found in current Conwy cluster among people not vaccinated, there will a concern to continue getting the message across to those who have not taken it up.

Record low hospital admissions

There has been a close eye on numbers of Covid cases in hospital.

Admissions to hospitals of confirmed and suspected Covid-19 cases have hit a record low point - a daily average of eight across the last seven days.

There were only two confirmed and suspected Covid patients admitted on Thursday - in Cardiff and Vale and Betsi Cadwaladr - another record low during the pandemic.

Cwm Taf on Monday had its first Covid admission in a month but none since.

There will be an even closer watch on the progress of the Delta variant and if this starts to translate into patients through hospital doors in the days to come, with the body representing Welsh health boards reminding people of the "importance of sticking to the rules".

The number of confirmed cases was 16 across all Welsh hospitals on Thursday, which is up on last week's record low, but still 99% fewer patients than we saw during the peak in early January.

Covid-19 patients - including those suspected and recovering - made up 1.5% of all patients in hospital on 3 June. The proportion reached 36% before Christmas.

There were also only two Covid patients in critical care, according to the Digital Health and Care Wales figures.

Deaths involving Covid have dropped significantly

The toll on families from the many deaths in the pandemic cannot be forgotten.

The second wave in particular brought more than 4,800 Covid deaths in Wales, over the winter.

But the fall since has been pronounced, as the vaccination programme kicked in.

In the most recent week, there were no Covid deaths in 15 out of Wales' local authority areas and only seven altogether, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Deaths from all causes have also been below average for 11 out of the last 12 weeks.

Figures have plummeted in care homes, with no deaths recorded in the latest week and vaccinations having a real impact on cases too - with positive results coming back at nearly one in 1,000 in the routine testing programme.

The snapshot daily figures from Public Health Wales have also not reported a Covid death for nine days in a row, which we've not seen before.

Another positive after a long period of so many grim statistics.