CAERPHILLY is now one of just two council areas in Wales with a rolling weekly coronavirus case rate of below 10 per 100,000, as cases continue to rise.
Barely a month ago, all but three or four of Wales's 22 council areas had case rates below 10 per 100,000 - but a combination of the effects of lockdown easing and the spread of the far more contagious Delta variant of coronavirus, means the situation has changed quickly.
For the week to June 11, the latest available, Caerphilly has a case rate of 9.9 per 100,000, the second lowest in Wales, behind Merthyr Tydfil (6.6).
There remain big differences in rates across Wales, with four areas of north Wales (Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board area) - Conwy (68.3 per 100,000); Denbighshire (56.4); Flintshire (34); and Wrexham (32.4) having the four highest rolling weekly case rates, to June 11.
By contrast, Gwent (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area) has five of the 10 lowest rates in Wales, for the week to June 11 - Caerphilly (9.9, second lowest); Blaenau Gwent (11.5, sixth lowest); Monmouthshire (11.6, sixth lowest); Newport (15.5, ninth lowest; and Torfaen (16, 10th lowest).
The Delta variant has hit north Wales earlier and currently, harder, than south Wales, however, it is now present in all parts of Wales and is the dominant strain among new cases.
Despite the increases in recent weeks however, the relatively low rates mean that even small fluctuations in case numbers in individual council areas can have a big effect on their case rates.
Wales' overall rolling weekly coronavirus case rate, for the week to June 11, is 22.2 per 100,000, a new high since early April. The Gwent-wide rate to the same date is 12.8.
The number of cases confirmed today in Wales is 141, including 11 in Gwent. There have been 35 cases in the neighbouring Cardiff & Vale University Health Board area, and 54 in north Wales, as the latter continues to be hit hardest by the recent increase in cases.
No deaths have been confirmed in Wales, for the third day in a row, meaning the number of deaths here since the pandemic began remains at 5,572, including 961 in Gwent.
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There have been 214,243 confirmed cases across Wales since the pandemic began, including 41,957 in Gwent.
In Wales, 2,222,281 people have now had a first dose of coronavirus vaccine, with almost 4,200 administered yesterday.
Currently far more people each day are receiving second doses - more than 21,000 were administered yesterday, meaning 1,432,201 people have now completed their two-dose vaccine course.
The Wales-wide test positivity rate for the week to June 11 is 2.2 per cent. Torfaen (1.9 per cent) has the highest test positivity rate in Gwent.
The confirmed new cases today in Wales are:
Conwy - 24
Cardiff - 19
Flintshire - 16
Vale of Glamorgan - 16
Swansea - eight
Denbighshire - six
Ceredigion - five
Caerphilly - four
Bridgend - four
Rhondda Cynon Taf - four
Newport - three
Gwynedd - three
Wrexham - three
Pembrokeshire - three
Powys - three
Neath Port Talbot - three
Monmouthshire - two
Torfaen - two
Anglesey - two
Carmarthenshire - two
Blaenau Gwent - none
Merthyr Tydfil - none
Unknown location - none
Resident outside Wales - nine
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.
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