Covid: No deaths in more than half Wales' council areas

More than half of local authority areas in Wales had no deaths involving Covid, weekly figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

There were no Covid deaths in the Hywel Dda health board area for a second week while Cardiff saw no Covid deaths for the first time in seven months.

Deaths of people with Covid-19 fell slightly to 14 in the week up to 16 April - 71% fewer than a month before.

Deaths from all causes were below average for a seventh successive week.

The 14 deaths involving Covid accounted for 2.2% of all deaths, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This compares to 19 in the week before. This is still lower than for any other week since 25 September and fluctuations are to be expected with numbers now so low.

The trend has seen a steady decline to the point where there have been 71% fewer Covid deaths registered than just a month ago.

During the latest week, up to 16 April - there were seven deaths in the Betsi Cadwaladr health board area, two in Cardiff and Vale - both in the Vale of Glamorgan and two in Cwm Taf Morgannwg. There was one death in Aneurin Bevan, Swansea Bay and also in Powys, the only Covid death in Wales involving a care home resident this week.

When broken down by local authority area, there were no deaths involving Covid registered in 12 counties: Anglesey, Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Flintshire, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Torfaen.

It comes days after ONS analysis of deaths during March showed Covid was no longer the leading cause of death and two thirds of local communities in Wales - when broken down into neighbourhoods and districts - experienced no deaths due to Covid.

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

The number of deaths from all causes in Wales fell to 644 in the week ending 16 April. This was 27 deaths fewer than the five-year average.

That below-average proportion (4%) is greater in Wales than England and all but the north west region for this week.

When looking at the pandemic as a whole, there have been 42,428 deaths from all causes, 7,846 (18.5%) mentioning Covid-19 on the death certificate. This was 5,690 deaths above the five-year average.

When deaths occurring up to 16 April but counting later registrations are included, the total number of deaths involving Covid rises to 7,853.

The second wave of the pandemic peaked on 11 January, when there were 83 deaths.

ONS figures are seen as the most reliable measure of deaths as they involve registrations of all deaths in different settings - including care homes, people's homes and hospices, as well as hospitals.

Because they rely on death certificates, they take a little longer to publish but are seen as giving a fuller picture than the daily snapshot given by Public Health Wales.

ONS includes deaths when Covid is suspected by a doctor to be a contributory factor. It is estimated in the latest figures that 76% of deaths said to involve Covid, it was the underlying cause of death.