NEW cases of the coronavirus in Wales appear to be levelling off, Public Health Wales has said.

The latest figures show that there were 117 new cases of the disease in 24 hours, over 100 less than Tuesday’s total of 232 and the lowest since March 18 when new figures began to be published.

Similarly, 20 further cases were reported in the Vale of Glamorgan compared to 32 on Tuesday.

This is the lowest daily figure in the Vale since March 22 and it continues the gradual decline of new cases since April 9.

Dr Giri Shankar, Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said:“Based on the new case numbers there is emerging evidence suggesting a levelling-off in the number of new cases of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wales, which may be an indication of the effectiveness of lockdown measures.

“However, it is still too early to tell for sure, and it is too soon to end the current social distancing rules”.

Seventy-three more people have died with the coronavirus in Wales, taking the death toll to 886.

The increase, which is the highest for some time, is largely down to reporting of cases which should have been included previously.

A review into how health boards report deaths has now been launched.

Public Health Wales (PHW) added: “The number of fatalities reported today includes 30 deaths which occurred between 29 March 2020 and 24 April 2020 and have been retrospectively reported to Public Health Wales.”

However, the true number of people who have died of coronavirus is still much higher.

According to data from the Office for National Statistics, more than 1,000 people have died of the virus in Wales since the outbreak began.

There have been 46 covid-19 related deaths recorded in the Vale.

38 of these took place in a hospital setting, whilst two were recorded in a care home.