THESE are the latest figures for the number of new coronavirus cases in the North Wales region, according to Public Health Wales.

Data released by Public Health Wales on December 15 shows that there had been 92 new coronavirus cases in North Wales.

These can be broken down to six in Conwy, 21 in Denbighshire, 14 in Flintshire, 17 in Gwynedd and 34 in Wrexham.

There were no new cases reported in Anglesey.

The total number of cases since recording began can be broken down to 990 in Anglesey, 1,890 in Conwy, 2,003 in Denbighshire, 3,555 in Flintshire, 1,495 in Gwynedd and 4,479 in Wrexham.

These latest figures are not likely to be a true reflection of cases in Wales though.

Dr Giri Shankar, Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, explained: “On Friday 11 December there was planned maintenance of the NHS Welsh Laboratory Information Management System (WLIMS) to allow for essential service upgrades to take place.

“This is affecting our daily reporting of Coronavirus figures, and the data today is not a true reflection of the picture in Wales. There will be a period of data reconciliation and validation that will affect our daily reporting figures for several days.

“Public Health Wales is also making some changes to the way we publish information on our website and data dashboard.

“We have changed the daily ‘data correct as of’ from 1pm the previous day to 9am the previous day for operational reasons.

“We have brought forward the publication time for our data dashboard and our daily statement from 2pm to the earlier time of 12pm.

Nationally, a further 615 cases were reported as of December 15, bringing the total to 102,568

Sadly, a further nine people died in Wales bringing the death toll to 2,891.

There has been a total of 562 coronavirus-related deaths recorded in the Betsi Cadwalader University Health Board region according to Public Health Wales.

Dr Shankar said: “We are very concerned at the alarming rise in rates of Coronavirus in nearly every part of Wales which is putting NHS Wales under extreme pressure, and shows no signs of abating.

“If at all possible, we would advise the public not to mix with other households now, and to consider carefully if it is still safe to form a Christmas ‘bubble’ with other households. Coronavirus spreads fastest when we are indoors with others, and gathering together for Christmas represents a significant risk of transmission, and increased cases will result in increased pressures on already stretched NHS services.

“We would advise the public that if they still want to have meaningful and safe interactions within the permitted exclusive Christmas ‘bubble’, then it is vital that you plan ahead, consider the risks involved and decide what would be safest for you and your loved ones.

“This means staying out of other people’s homes, limiting the times and the numbers of people that you meet, maintaining social distancing and hand hygiene, working from home if you can, and self-isolating if you show symptoms of coronavirus or are asked to do so by contact tracers."