Eighteen new cases of coronavirus have been reported in Caerphilly County Borough, according to the latest headline figure released by Public Health Wales (PHW).
The figure, which was released on Friday (September 18), shows how many new cases PHW was made aware of on Thursday (September 17).
Public Health Wales has also confirmed 185 new coronavirus cases across Wales, with one death recorded.
Of these new cases, 45 were recorded in Rhondda Cynon Taf, which, like Caerphilly County Borough, is currently under a local lockdown.
Meanwhile, 18 new cases have been reported in Newport, 11 in Cardiff and 11 in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough.
In Blaenau Gwent, three more cases have been confirmed, with a further two cases in Monmouthshire and one in Torfaen.
In the last seven days, PHW has been made aware of 133 new cases in Caerphilly County Borough – with only Rhondda Cynon Taf recording more cases (202) in the same period.
Caerphilly was placed under a local lockdown by Welsh Government on September 8.
Welsh Government has said it will take several weeks for the effects of the local lockdown to be felt.
A temporary coronavirus testing centre has been set up in the car park at New Tredegar Business Park, with the temporary testing centres at the council offices in Tredomen and Caerphilly Leisure Centre 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 Friday, September 18, saw 18 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 17 – 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 17.
The headline figure for Caerphilly County Borough for September 17 (which was published on September 18) is 18 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 17.
This is because the 18 cases were actually tested for a few days prior, but PHW only became aware of them on September 17. 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 216 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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