THERE have been 218 new cases of Covid-19 recorded in the Hywel Dda health board area in 24 hours according to Public Health Wales (PHW).

PHW figures for today (Thursday, February 17), state there were 102 new cases in Carmarthenshire, 55 in Pembrokeshire and 61 in Ceredigion since the last report.

The total number of cases across the three counties now stands at 78,545 – 43,755 in Carmarthenshire, 23,461 in Pembrokeshire and 11,329 in Ceredigion.

Since January 6, Covid-19 testing policy has changed and asymptomatic people don’t have to do a PCR test following a positive lateral flow test.

For the seven-day period ending on February 6 there were 25,497 lateral flow testing episodes across the three counties – with a person potentially recording multiple episodes – of which 2,651 were positive.

There were two new Covid-related deaths recorded in the Hywel Dda area since the last report, with the total number 694 throughout the pandemic.

In total, 1,352 new cases of coronavirus and four new Covid-related deaths have been reported across Wales bringing the national total to 805,836 cases and 6,935 deaths.

There have been 10,744 tests done across the country since the last report.

Across Wales 2,517,309 have had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 2,379,217 have had their second dose.

‘Booster’ doses have been given to 1,886,098 people and 60,339 people have received a three-dose primary course of Covid-19 vaccine.