Another 34 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Caerphilly County Borough, according to the latest headline figure released by Public Health Wales (PHW).
The figure shows the number of new cases PHW was made aware of on Wednesday (September 9).
Across Wales, PHW was made aware of 102 new cases of the virus on Wednesday – a decrease from the 165 new cases reported across Wales the day before.
In the last seven days, PHW has been made aware of 165 new cases in Caerphilly – which equates to 91.1 cases per 100,000 people.
This is the highest rate of new cases of any local authority area in Wales.
In comparison, 90 new cases (37.3 cases per 100,000 people) were reported in Rhondda Cynon Taf in that same period of time, with 33 in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough (54.7 cases per 100,000 people).
In Gwent, 36 new cases were reported in Newport, six in Blaenau Gwent, five in Torfaen and three in Monmouthshire.
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 10, saw 34 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 9 – 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 9.
The headline figure for Caerphilly County Borough for September 9 (which was published on September 10) is 34 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 9.
This is because the 34 cases were actually tested for a few days prior, but PHW only became aware of them on September 9. 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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