THREE of Gwent's five local authority areas are in local lockdown today.

Newport and Blaenau Gwent joined Caerphilly in lockdown when new restrictions came into force at 6pm last night.

Meanwhile, no such restrictions are in place in neighbouring Monmouthshire and Torfaen.

So how have these two areas avoided local lockdown?

This is how the five authority areas in Gwent compare when it comes to weekly coronavirus cases.

South Wales Argus:

Until the end of August, all areas seemed to be following the same trend, though with higher peaks for some than others.

After the initial rise in Spring, only a handful of cases were logged weekly in all five authorities throughout the summer.

However, as September approached Caerphilly saw a large spike in cases, peaking at 216 cases in week 37, 50 per cent higher than the worst week in the area in Spring.

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Newport also saw spike in cases in September, which health minister Vaughan Gething said was linked to a house party in August.

Mr Gething said: "In Newport the rise in cases appeared to start with a house party at the end of August and was subsequently linked to a number of pubs.

"But we are now seeing a wide spread of cases across the city, which are not linked to a particular cluster or showing links with existing cases."

While Blaenau Gwent did not see the immediate spike that Caerphilly and Newport did, there has been a noticeable rise in the last two weeks.

Last week Public Health Wales recorded 58 new coronavirus cases in Blaenau Gwent, more than double the 26 recorded the prior week.

In comparison, while rising slightly, Monmouthshire recorded double figures of cases last week for just the first time since May.

While, Torfaen saw a reduction in the number of coronavirus cases found last week compared to the week before, dropping from 20 cases to 13.