SIXTY-seven coronavirus cases were identified across the Hywel Dda Health Board area yesterday, the latest figures from Public Health Wales show.

The majority of new cases were found in Carmarthenshire, which had 46 cases, Ceredigion was second with 12, then Pembrokeshire with nine.

To date, the three counties have had 3,814 cases - 739 in Pembrokeshire, 404 in Ceredigion and 2,671 in Carmarthenshire.

Across Wales, 705 new cases were recorded by PHW from 8,392 tests. In total 67,811 cases have been confirmed to PHW to date.

Thirty-four deaths were recorded across Wales yesterday, bringing the total number of Covid-related deaths across the country to 2,243.

To date, 94 people have died of the coronavirus across Hywel Dda.

Dr Giri Shankar, Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “Public Health Wales strongly advises the public to take personal responsibility for their actions and to ensure that we are all doing as much as possible to limit the transmission of coronavirus.

“We would remind everyone that coronavirus is still active in our communities, and therefore this does not mean a return to normality.

“We ask the public to observe the new regulations and to limit their contact with other people as much as possible so that we all work together to bring the numbers of positive cases down.

“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.

“All of these actions will help to break the chains of transmission, reduce the spread of the virus, and keep people safe.

“We understand that people will want to carry on with their Christmas shopping now the fire-break has ended. We would suggest to try to visit shops during off-peak times, to always maintain social distancing and to wear a face covering if you can. Options such as ‘click and collect’ or online purchasing may also be something to consider.

“Today Public Health Wales is adding additional data to its public-facing dashboard which will show among other data the coronavirus incidence in the under-25s and the over-60s age groups. This data can be accessed by downloading the report from the Local Authorities tab and it will be updated on a bi-weekly basis."