THERE have been 516 new Covid-19 cases recorded in the Hywel Dda Health Board area by Public Health Wales (PHW) in 72 hours, according to the latest figures.

PHW figures for today (Tuesday, March 15) state there were 232 new cases in Carmarthenshire, 171 in Pembrokeshire and 113 in Ceredigion since the last report.

The total number of cases across the three counties now stands at 81,957 – 45,521 in Carmarthenshire, 24,494 in Pembrokeshire and 11,942 in Ceredigion.

Data on a Monday is for a 24 hour period up to 9am Friday, and data on a Tuesday is for the 72 hours up to 9am Monday.

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

For the seven-day period ending on March 6, there were 16,051 lateral flow testing episodes across the three counties – with a person potentially recording multiple episodes – of which 1,822 were positive.

There were no new covid-related deaths recorded in the Hywel Dda area and the total now stands at 712 throughout the pandemic.

In total, 4,114 new cases of coronavirus and two new Covid-related deaths have been reported across Wales bringing the national total to 831,632 cases and 7,050 deaths.

There have been 19,569 tests done across the country since the last report.

Across Wales 2,523,820 have had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 2,393,793 have had their second dose.

‘Booster’ doses have been given to 1,923,745 people and 61,505 people have received a three-dose primary course of Covid-19 vaccine.