Seven more people who tested positive for coronavirus in Wales have died, taking the overall total to
Public Health Wales has confirmed that 1, 563 patients have now tested positive for the virus, up (from the 1, (overall cases reported on Monday.
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, described as a “hotspot” for Covid – 86 patients, continues to have the highest l evels of the virus in a single health board area.
Numbers of confirmed cases by local health board
Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the novel coronavirus (Covid –
On Tuesday it was announced that the UK coronavirus death toll has reached 1, (after) (people were confirmed dead.)
The latest figures were released following a press conference by Health Minister Vaughan Gething who gave an update on how Wales is tackling the outbreak.
Following a recruitment drive over the last week, he said 1, retired health and social care staff in Wales had “answered the call” to come back to work in the Welsh NHS.
That included doctors, 451 nurses and midwives, and allied healthcare professionals.
Mr Gething added that 3, medical, nursing, midwifery, paramedic and healthcare students can be brought in to help in the NHS, and that Social Care Wales had sent out 1550 letters to people previously registered asking them to come back to work.
Almost 760 Doctors have automatically been re-registered by the GMC in Wales and pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have been included on the temporary register and are yet to opt-out.
He also confirmed that 31, 22 People in Wales have now signed up to volunteer either to support their community or the NHS.
“It’s a fantastic show of the resilience and dedication by so many in such unprecedented times,” he said.
Mr Gething went on to admit that he was “disappointed” that a contract to introduce 5, 10 more tests in Wales had fallen through.
He said there was a written exchange and agreement with a team to come into Wales to improve testing capacity. However, he said the company were unable to fulfill their agreement.
The Health Minister said he would not be naming the company and added that other routes to provide more testing were being explored. Currently, there are 1, 112 tests being carried out per day rather than the 6,
hoped. Speaking about why Aneurin Bevan UHB had the most Covid – cases, Mr Gething said he believed it may have something to do with the “traffic flow” between England and Wales.
He also said that Aneurin Bevan started testing earlier than other areas of Wales because a member of staff was symptomatic very early on. But he said he wouldn’t expect that health board to have the most by the end of the outbreak.
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