A FURTHER 1,256 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Wales today - the highest in a single day since January 18.

There have also been two newly confirmed coronavirus deaths in Wales, the first in eight days.

The number of new confirmed cases may be in part down to a reporting lag from the weekend, but this will be not be the main factor and the figure is in the main an indication of how the virus has taken hold again.

It comes on the back of increased confirmations last week, which have pushed the rolling weekly case rate in Wales - to June 30, the latest available - to 95.1 per 100,000 people, the highest since mid-February. The rate has also doubled in a week.

The rolling weekly case rate in Gwent (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area) for the week to June 30 is 71.2 per 100,000.

There have been 239 new cases confirmed in Gwent today, also the biggest number in a single day since January - Caerphilly, 79; Newport, 57; Monmouthshire, 43; Torfaen, 37; Blaenau Gwent, 23.

There have been no confirmed coronavirus deaths in Gwent for 25 days.

Newport (42 per 100,000) has the lowest rolling weekly case rate in Gwent and the third lowest in Wales, for the week to June 30. Blaenau Gwent (64.4) has the ninth lowest rate in Wales; Monmouthshire (76.1) has the 11th lowest rate in Wales.

Torfaen (88.3 per 100,000) has the 10th highest rate and Caerphilly (87.3) has the 11th highest rate.

The number of cases in Wales since the pandemic began stands at 221,087, including 42,813 in Gwent.

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To the end of yesterday, Sunday, 2,264,974 people in Wales have received a first dose of coronavirus vaccine, and 1,730,632 people have completed their two-dose vaccine course.

The Wales-wide test positivity rate for the week to June 30 is 5.5 per cent. Torfaen (5.1 per cent) has the highest test positivity rate in Gwent.

The confirmed new cases today in Wales are:

Cardiff - 158

Wrexham - 114

Flintshire - 95

Rhondda Cynon Taf - 87

Caerphilly - 79

Conwy - 68

Carmarthenshire - 61

Newport - 57

Swansea - 54

Powys - 44

Monmouthshire - 43

Torfaen - 37

Denbighshire - 37

Vale of Glamorgan - 37

Bridgend - 37

Anglesey - 36

Gwynedd - 36

Pembrokeshire - 28

Neath Port Talbot - 27

Blaenau Gwent - 23

Ceredigion - 12

Merthyr Tydfil - seven

Unknown location - 10

Resident outside Wales - 69

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.