THERE were 41 ICU beds vacant in Wales out of 211 in total - according to the most recent statistics - as coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country.

That is according to the latest figures from Stats Wales, which show the number of occupied, vacant and total invasive ventilated beds available in Wales.

The most recent figures are for December 16.

Stats Wales reported that, as of December 16, 170 of these beds were currently occupied by a patient.

This means that approximately 81 per cent of Welsh critical care beds were full according to the December 16 stats.

This is down from 179 the previous day and the lowest total for three days.

In Gwent, the figures from December 16 show that there were just three beds vacant across the Aneurin Bevan Health Board area.

These three are from a total stock of 24.

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In terms of general hospital beds in Wales, there were 9,358 across the country in total.

Of these, 8,400 were occupied as per the stats from December 16.

958 were vacant, the highest number since December 12.

In Gwent, there were 1,702 general beds as of December 16.

239 of those were reported as vacant - again the highest number since December 12.

First Minister Mark Drakeford will meet with Welsh Government ministers today to decide if more restrictions will be needed as Covid cases rise.

The Omicron variant has caused thousands of new cases in the UK.

The amount of cases are comparable to this time last year, when a lockdown was imposed - though vaccination had just begun then.