THERE have been 218 new Covid-19 cases recorded in the Hywel Dda area according to the latest figures from Public Health Wales.

PHW figures for today, Sunday, January 16, state there were 111 new cases in Carmarthenshire, 72 in Pembrokeshire and 35 in Ceredigion.

The total number of cases across the three counties now stands at 70,551 – 38,837 in Carmarthenshire, 21,419 in Pembrokeshire and 10,295 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.

There were no new Covid-related deaths recorded in the Hywel Dda area since the last report, with the total remaining at 651 throughout the pandemic.

In total, 2,133 new cases of coronavirus and six new Covid-related deaths have been reported across Wales bringing the national total to 740,742 cases and 6,689 deaths.

There have been 16,555 tests done across the country since the last report.

Across Wales 2,499, 752 have had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 2,334,096 have had their second dose.

‘Booster’ doses have been given to 1,765,080 people and 52,762 people have received a three-dose primary course of Covid-19 vaccine.