EIGHT new coronavirus deaths and a further 480 cases have been confirmed across Gwent (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area) today.

They are among 15 new deaths and 2,273 new cases recorded throughout Wales by Public Health Wales.

In the past 10 days, Public Health Wales has confirmed 372 coronavirus deaths across Wales, with more than 80 of these being in Gwent, a figure surpassed only in the neighbouring Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board area (118).

The number of coronavirus deaths in Gwent since the pandemic, again according to Public Health Wales, is now 651, with the Wales-wide total 3,383.

The total number of cases in Wales is now 141,915, with 29,277 of these in Gwent.

The latest figures continue a grim set from across the festive season.

New cases confirmed in Gwent today - and the individual area's totals - are as follows: Caerphilly, 141 (9,657); Newport, 131 (7,588); Torfaen, 102 (4,387); Blaenau Gwent, 60 (4,803); Monmouthshire 46 (2,842).

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The rolling weekly case rate for Wales - for the week to December 23 - is 536.4 per 100,000 population.

Blaenau Gwent continues to have the highest such rate in Gwent, at 814.5 per 100,000, which is also the third highest in Wales. Case rates for the remaining areas of Gwent for the same period, are: Newport, 678.8 per 100,000 (sixth highest in Wales); Torfaen 656.7 (seventh highest in Wales); Caerphilly, 635.1 (eighth highest in Wales); Monmouthshire, 411.2 (14th highest in Wales).

Merthyr Tydfil currently has the highest case rate in Wales, at 1,022.8 per 100,000, closely followed by Bridgend with 1,021.4.

One-in-five people (20 per cent, or 16,913) tested in Wales in the week to December 23 returned positive results for coronavirus - but the proportion of positive tests that week was higher in eleven council areas in Wales.

These included four areas of Gwent, with only Monmouthshire below the Wales average.

The newly confirmed cases in Wales today, are:

Cardiff - 258

Rhondda Cynon Taf - 239

Bridgend -197

Swansea - 178

Caerphilly - 141

Newport - 131

Neath Port Talbot - 123

Flintshire - 125

Wrexham - 109

Vale of Glamorgan - 109

Torfaen - 102

Carmarthenshire - 98

Merthyr Tydfil - 83

Blaenau Gwent - 60

Pembrokeshire - 49

Monmouthshire - 46

Powys - 39

Denbighshire - 29

Conwy - 20

Anglesey - 11

Gwynedd - 10

Ceredigion - six

Unknown location - 19

Resident outside Wales - 91

Public Health Wales figures include reports of the deaths of hospitalised patients in Welsh hospitals, or care home residents, where Covid-19 has been confirmed with a positive laboratory test and the clinician suspects this was a causative factor in the death.

They do not include people who may have died of Covid-19 but who were not confirmed by laboratory testing, those who died in other settings, or Welsh residents who died outside of Wales, and the true number of Covid-19 deaths will be higher.

The Office for National Statistics - which counts all deaths in which coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate - puts the number of deaths in Wales much higher.