POWYS recorded one new case of coronavirus in the last 24 hours – with a total of just nine new cases coming to light across the county in the last week.

Powys’ case rate per 100,000 people in the week up to May 9 is now 9.8. The total number of Powys cases since the pandemic began is now 4,197.

The number of deaths in Powys remains at 66, according to Public Health Wales (PHW) figures, with that number rising by one to 271 in the last seven days, according to more accurate Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.

Of Wales’ 22 local authority areas, nine recorded no new cases today, with 21 the highest in Cardiff, with 14 in Newport.

From now on we will be moving our daily Covid stats to a twice weekly update, on a Friday and a Tuesday.

Powys stats:

Confirmed cases – 4,197

New cases in May 14 data – 1

Rate of new cases per 100,000 in week to May 9 – 9.8

Powys position among Welsh local authorities for rate of new cases – joint 7th out of 22

Powys Teaching Health Board vaccine total doses – 144,900

PTHB first doses – 96,800

PTHB second doses – 48,000

The national picture:

There have been no new deaths with Covid-19 reported in Wales, PHW said today.

It means the total number of deaths reported in Wales remains at 5,558, with one new death reported on Thursday.

A further 54 people have tested positive for the virus, taking the total number of cases to 212,095.

Wales' seven-day infection rate has risen slightly from 8.9 cases for every 100,000 people to nine cases.

The number of people who have had their first coronavirus vaccine dose is almost at two million with 1,990,783 jabs received. Of those, 891,569 have received their second dose and are fully vaccinated.

Elsewhere, First Minister Mark Drakeford says Wales could move to alert level one by next month.

The next three-week Covid restrictions review in Wales will be held at the start of June.

Wales will move to Covid alert level two from Monday.

This means pubs and restaurants will be able to reopen indoors for groups of six people, and entertainment venues and indoor visitor attractions, including museums, can reopen.

At Friday’s latest three-week press briefing, Mr Drakeford said: “If the public health situation remains positive, we will look at whether we can move to alert level one.”

This could mean relaxing the rules further around meeting people in their own homes, increasing the number of people able to attend wedding receptions, and restarting larger events “building on the experience of our pilot programme, which started yesterday”.

People in Wales have been asked not go on holiday abroad in 2021, even if they are allowed to.

From Monday, people in England can travel to a small number of countries.

The First Minister confirmed that international travel for any reason would resume in Wales on Monday, the same as England and Scotland, although he would prefer people to stay within Wales. He said there will be a traffic-light system introduced for international travel as in other parts of the UK.

Welsh ministers said people should only travel from May 17 for “essential purposes” while Mr Drakeford urged people to stay in Wales to avoid “importing” coronavirus from abroad. The 26 cases in Wales of two coronavirus variants first identified in India are “almost entirely the result of international travel”, the first minister said.

Mr Drakeford said those infected were “people coming back to Wales from overseas” and all cases are being carefully monitored by local public health teams.

“The advice I have is not that we need to be overly concerned about the position in Wales at the moment.”

He said there was more concern about the “significant spread of that India variant across our border” in England and that “it's something that we need to understand better, get better advice about”.

Almost half of young adults, meanwhile, have received a first coronavirus vaccine in some Welsh health board areas.

In north Wales, 44 per cent of people aged 18-29 have been given a first dose, while in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan 46 per cent have been vaccinated.

An average of 36.6 per cent of people under 30 in Wales have had the jab as the roll-out moves at different speeds across Welsh health boards.

One vaccine centre manager said young people were “coming in their droves”.

The Welsh Government has committed to offering every adult a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine by the end of July, after succeeding in offering all people in priority groups one to nine a first dose by the middle of April.

People under 30 have been offered the Pfizer jab as an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, after a link with rare blood clots was identified. That was extended to people under 40 last week.