The latest headline figure released by Public Health Wales shows a further 36 new cases of coronavirus have been reported in Caerphilly County Borough.
The figures, which were released on Wednesday (September 16), show how many new cases Public Health Wales (PHW) was made aware of on Tuesday (September 15).
It is an increase on the 12 new cases reported on Tuesday, but still less than the 47 new cases reported on Monday (September 14).
The latest headline figure shows 199 new coronavirus cases across Wales – taking the total number of cases reported in Wales since the beginning of the outbreak to 19,734.
Of these 199 new cases, 52 were reported in Rhondda Cynon Taf – which is set to become the second local authority area, after Caerphilly County Borough, to be placed under a local lockdown.
Welsh Government has announced Rhondda Cynon Taf will enter a local lockdown from 6pm on Thursday (September 17).
Meanwhile, 14 new cases have been reported in Cardiff and eight have been reported in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough.
Elsewhere, 15 new cases have been confirmed in Newport, seven in Blaenau Gwent, three in Torfaen and two in Monmouthshire.
In the last seven days, PHW has been made aware of 151 new cases in Caerphilly – with only Rhondda Cynon Taf recording more cases (198) in the same period.
Caerphilly was placed under a local lockdown by Welsh Government on Tuesday, September 8.
Welsh Government has said it will take several weeks for the effects of the local lockdown to be felt.
What does ‘headline figure’ mean?
In recent weeks, Caerphilly Observer and other media have been reporting the headline figures from Public Health Wales.
For example, the headline figure released on Wednesday September 16, saw 36 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 15 – 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 15.
The headline figure for Caerphilly County Borough for September 15 (which was published on September 16) is 36 new cases.
The latest spreadsheet containing the detailed data, which can be downloaded from the PHW stats website, actually shows no new cases for September 15.
This is because the 36 cases were actually tested for a few days prior, but PHW only became aware of them on September 15. 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 13 saw 214 new cases of coronavirus recorded in Caerphilly County Borough. The week prior to that (August 31 to September 6) saw 171. The week before that (August 24 to August 30) saw 47. There were just eight cases recorded between August 17 and August 23.
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