Covid deaths in Wales drop to zero for first week since start of pandemic
29 June 2021, 18:31
Wales has had zero Covid-related deaths for the first week since the pandemic began, figures have shown.
None of the 573 deaths in Wales - in the week ending on 18 June - were related to Coronavirus, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed.
The last time zero deaths were recorded in one week in connection to the virus was on 13 March 2020, with the following week seeing two Covid-related deaths registered.
Numbers peaked at 413 during the first wave of the virus, in the week to 24 April, and at 467 during the second wave, in the week to 15 January.
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This comes as numbers continue to rise in England and Scotland.
In England, the number of registered deaths involving Covid-19 stood at 102 in the week to 18 June, up from 83 the previous week.
This marked the first time England's total had been above 100 since the week to 14 May, accounting for the bank holiday weekend.
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Scotland has seen cases grow too, with parts of the country taking over from the north-west of England as the hotspot for the virus.
East Lothian is now the local area with the highest rate of new cases in the UK, with 595.8 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 24 June.
Dundee is second, with 587.3 cases per 100,000.
That said, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that the spike in cases in Scotland may have passed its peak.
She explained: "When we look at cases over the past week by the date the specimen was taken, as opposed to the date on which we report the test result, which are the numbers we report on a daily basis, then what we see is a peak in cases last Tuesday, and since then we have seen what appears to be a slowing down of the rate of increase."
