Fifteen new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Caerphilly County Borough, the latest headline figure from Public Health Wales (PHW) has revealed.
The headline figure, reported on Thursday (September 24), shows how many new cases PHW was made aware of on Wednesday (September 23).
However, PHW has said there’s been a “lag in receiving data”, and has warned that recent figures may be an “underestimate”.
But despite this, the number of new cases reported in the borough in the last few days has been a decrease on the figures we were seeing around the time Caerphilly was placed under a local lockdown on September 8.
Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething has praised residents of Caerphilly for their efforts in sticking to the local lockdown.
Speaking at a Welsh Government press briefing on Monday, September 21, Mr Gething said: “We have seen a dip in cases in Caerphilly. That’s important because it does show what we said at the outset – that it would take about two weeks for the restrictions to start to have an effect.
“It’s a cautious note of optimism, but it does show that it’s possible to see improvements if people follow the rules, as they have done in Caerphilly.
“I am very grateful to the leader of the council, Philippa Marsden, and the residents of Caerphilly who have been following the rules and really helping to improve the situation.”
The latest figures show 348 new cases recorded across Wales, with one death.
These figures include 77 new cases in Rhondda Cynon Taf, 30 in Blaenau Gwent, 28 in Merthyr Tydfil County, 17 in Bridgend County and six in Newport. All these areas are also under a local lockdown.
Elsewhere, there were 39 new cases recorded in Cardiff, nine in Torfaen and one in Monmouthshire.
In the last seven days, 64 new coronavirus cases have been recorded in Caerphilly County Borough.
Rhondda Cynon Taf (327 new cases), Cardiff (140), Swansea (123), Blaenau Gwent (117), Bridgend County (110), Merthyr Tydfil County (89), Carmarthenshire (89) and Newport (70) all recorded more cases than Caerphilly in that same time frame.
A temporary coronavirus testing centre has been set up in the car park at New Tredegar Business Park, with the temporary testing centre at Caerphilly Leisure Centre set to remain open until September 28.
The test centre at the council offices in Tredomen has now closed.
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 Thursday, September 24, saw 15 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 23 – 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 23.
The headline figure for Caerphilly County Borough for September 23 (which was published on September 24) is 15 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 23.
This is because the 15 cases were actually tested for a few days prior, but PHW only became aware of them on September 23. 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 20 saw 122 new cases of coronavirus recorded in Caerphilly County Borough. The week prior to that (September 7 to 13) saw 216.
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