31 new Covid-19 cases recorded in Caerphilly County Borough

The latest headline figure from Public Health Wales (PHW) shows a further 31 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Caerphilly County Borough.

The headline figure, based on data from Sunday, September 6, shows how many new cases of coronavirus PHW was made aware of on that date, and includes cases from previous days, which PWH had been unaware of.

Across Wales, PHW was made aware of 133 new cases on Sunday.

In the past seven days, PHW has been made aware of 98 new cases in Caerphilly County Borough – more than in any other council area in Wales.

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For comparison, there were 79 new cases were reported in Rhondda Cynon Taf and 48 in Cardiff in that same time frame.

Meanwhile, ten cases were reported in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, nine in Newport, seven in Torfaen, three in Blaenau Gwent and two in Monmouthshire.

What does ‘headline figure’ mean?

Over the last few days, Caerphilly Observer and other media have been reporting the headline figures from Public Health Wales.

For example, the headline figure released on Monday, September 7, saw 31 new positive tests reported.

This figure however is not entirely as it seems at first glance. It is the number of new cases PHW were aware of as of September 6 – the day before.

Even then, this figure is still not what you think it ought to be as it includes positive tests that may have occurred a few days prior, but that PHW were only made aware of on September 6.

The headline figure for Caerphilly County Borough for September 6 (which was published on September 7) is 31 new cases.

The latest spreadsheet containing the detailed data, which can be downloaded from the PHW stats website, shows one new case for September 6.

This is because the 31 cases were actually tested for a few days prior, but PHW only became aware of them on September 6. We will have a far more accurate reflection of what has been going on in the last few days over the course of the next week.

However, the figures do show the week up to September 6 saw 98 new cases of coronavirus. The week prior to that (August 24 to August 30) saw 46. The week before that (August 17 to August 23), there was just eight.

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