Covid-19 death toll passes 5,000 in Wales as further 12 people die with virus
Charanpreet Khaira speaks to five families who have lost loved ones to Covid-19
More than 5,000 people have now died with coronavirus in Wales since the pandemic began.
Latest figures from Public Health Wales show that the death toll here has reached 5,001, as a further 12 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours.
This means Wales has seen its deadliest period of the pandemic in the last two months - seeing more than 2,000 deaths since mid-December.
Despite hitting the sombre 5,000 landmark, the number of Covid-19 deaths being reported each day has been showing an overall downward trend since the beginning of the year.
Case numbers are also continuing to decrease across most of Wales, although some parts of north Wales have seen slight rises.
Wales surpassed 4,000 deaths on January 13 and reached more than 3,000 on December 18, meaning more than 1,000 people have lost their lives to Covid each month since the end of last year.
That is compared to 3,000 deaths over the first eight or nine months of the pandemic.
Wales has also had more Covid-19 deaths than the whole of China, which has a population around 446 times larger. China has seen 4,831 coronavirus deaths.
Dr Giri Shankar from Public Health Wales said: “Today we reached a sobering milestone. There have now been 5,000 deaths of people with coronavirus in Wales reported to Public Health Wales.
“That’s one life lost every 90 minutes since March last year. 5,000 families grieving. We offer our sincere condolences to everyone who has lost someone."
Health Minister Vaughan Gething told a press conference on Monday that he was "deeply sorry" for every life lost throughout the pandemic.
Mr Gething said that one of things he has found most difficult throughout the pandemic is the knowledge that the decisions made by Welsh Government can make the difference between life and death.
He added that he feels "real sorrow" when every death is reported but feels that Welsh Government ministers have done everything they could have done in their response to Covid, based on the knowledge they had at the time.
Watch the full Welsh Government press conference here:
Another 610 confirmed cases of the virus were also reported in the past 24 hours.
An estimated 116 people per 100,000 of the population now have the virus. This number has been consistently dropping but Public Health warn it is still too high and the rates in some areas, particularly north Wales, are nearly double that.
Flintshire now has the highest rolling seven-day case rate out of all Welsh local authority areas at 231.9 per 100,000.
Most recent estimations put the R rate number between 0.7 and 0.9 in Wales.