CORONAVIRUS has killed close to 1,000 people in Wales in the past three months - including approaching 200 in Gwent - as its feared but anticipated second wave has wreaked social and economic havoc.

The numbers are stark, but the pain and misery they have visited on real lives are far starker, a picture repeated up and down the UK.

The days and weeks of summer, when a semblance of normality crept back into daily life after the bleakest spring many can remember, now seem a long time ago.

The start of the second wave of coronavirus, in Wales or anywhere else, cannot be pinned down to a single day - but as December dawns it is worth looking back to the start of September, three months ago.

There had not been a confirmed coronavirus death in Gwent for several weeks and across Wales, the days without a death had for much of August outnumbered those with one.

But early signs of trouble were appearing, in the form of slowly rising numbers of confirmed cases.

On September 1, Public Health Wales reported 51 new cases Wales-wide, more than double the number of just a week before. A week later, the figure was 150.

The biggest numbers were reported in areas like Caerphilly, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and Cardiff. On September 8, Caerphilly became the first part of Wales to go into a local lockdown, as worried Welsh Government ministers and public health experts sought to stem the spread of coronavirus.

Other areas followed in short order - Rhondda Cynon Taf, Newport, Merthyr Tydfil, the list grew by the week.

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Then deaths began to increase. Early in September, First Minister Mark Drakeford had warned, as cases rose, of a ‘lag’ in deaths, that if the spread of the virus was not dealt with, the fatal consequences would begin to appear two to three weeks later.

On September 1, one new death was confirmed by Public Health Wales. During the next 15 days one more death was confirmed, But then came six in three days.

Days without confirmed coronavirus deaths became fewer, then stopped altogether. When Wales went into its 17-day firebreak lockdown on October 23, 48 deaths had been confirmed in just six days.

A far more comprehensive testing system has meant more cases have been picked up through the late summer and the autumn, and temporary testing centres have become a common sight in many communities in Gwent and other parts of Wales.

On September 1, the number of confirmed cases in Wales since the pandemic began was 18,063. This topped 40,000 by the time the firebreak started, and has more than doubled again, to 81,009 today.

The firebreak lockdown has put the brakes on the spread of coronavirus in Wales, but the effect has been patchy, and case rates across some areas, including much of Gwent, had begun to rise again by mid-November.

The number of deaths meanwhile, bearing that ‘lag’ in mind, have remained high.

Since September 1, 967 people in Wales have been confirmed by Public Health Wales as having died of coronavirus, including 187 in Gwent.

Of those all-Wales deaths, close to 70 per cent (675) have come in the past month. In Gwent, the proportion is even higher, with almost 74 per cent (138) having happened since November 1.

The quest to enable people to enjoy some sort of festive season in the company of loved ones has resulted in the imposition of new restrictions of varying types and severity across the UK.

In Wales, that means the continuation of limits to the numbers of households that can meet, and where they can meet, and the introduction from Friday of tough new rules which will hit the hospitality sector hard.

Twenty-three more deaths were confirmed in Wales on December 1 however, and while the number of new cases - 667, including 85 in Gwent - was the lowest nationally and locally for some time, it is far too early to predict an end to this second wave.