THIS weekend saw a small number of COVID-19 cases confirmed in North Wales.

There have now been more than 34,850 lab-confirmed cases of the virus identified from the combined counties since the outbreak of the pandemic - after more incidents were confirmed by Public Health Wales (PHW) in the latest figures released on April 18.

PHW confirmed that 16 of the latest 94 Welsh cases came from the northern region.

They can be broken down as such:

• Anglesey – 1 (1.4 per 100,000 population)

• Conwy – 1 (0.9 per 100,000 population)

• Denbighshire – 0 (0 per 100,000 population)

• Flintshire – 4 (2.6 per 100,000 population)

• Gwynedd – 8 (6.4 per 100,000 population)

• Wrexham – 2 (1.5 per 100,000 population)

BCUHB stats:

• Total confirmed COVID-19 cases from North Wales as of April 18 – 34,853

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board – the largest health board in Wales – has reported 940 people have sadly died since the start of the pandemic, according to PHW data.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics, which are considered a stronger indicator of the overall impact of the virus, and which are based on all deaths where COVID is mentioned on the death certificate, stand at 1,380 for the health board area.

The national picture:

Across Wales, another 94 COVID cases were confirmed in the latest figures, meaning that 210,823 people are now known to have contracted the coronavirus since the pandemic began.

There have been three reported deaths since Friday, meaning the number of people to have died with confirmed cases of coronavirus remains at 5,538 in Wales.

None of these were in the BCUHB area.

Headline figures show that, across Wales, over 1.6m people have had their first COVID-19 jab. Of that figure, over 600,000 have completed the two-dose treatment.

This is what Public Health Wales has to say:

Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, gave the first statement as health officials shift to six-day reporting.

He said: “We have made some changes to the way we publish information on our website and data dashboard.

“Starting from Saturday, April 17, we will no longer be publishing Coronavirus data or a daily statement on our website on Saturdays. Data reported on Sundays will therefore be for the 24-hour period up to 9am on Friday, and data reported on Mondays will be for a 48-hour period up to 9am on Sunday.

“It is likely that the figures reported on Mondays will be around double the usual 24 hours figure.

“We are doing this because case numbers are now low therefore any fluctuation day-to-day can give rise to potentially misleading interpretation and we want to be focusing more on the underlying trends.”

He adds that the team compiling data have the ability to “ramp back up” to seven-day reporting if necessary.

Dr Shankar also gives a warning that we should not let our guard down just yet.

He said: “We would like to remind the public that Coronavirus is still circulating in our communities and a large number of people have not been fully vaccinated.

“It is therefore vital that people observe social distancing, where face coverings when in indoor spaces, and wash hands regularly. These actions will help to prevent transmission of the virus.”