CEREDIGION has seen the biggest daily jump in coronavirus cases since the pandemic began with 11 new cases being reported today (Tuesday).

The jump in numbers has taken Ceredigion’s total to 113 Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began in March.

The jump in numbers follows a decision taken by Aberystwyth University to suspend face-to-face teaching on campus after two people, believed to be students, tested positive on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Carmarthenshire has reported 16 new cases today, Pembrokeshire, 2, Powys, 4 and Gwynedd, 3.

Ceredigion County Council has closed all council-run leisure centres and facilities in the county as a result of a ‘spike’ in cases.

Ceredigion still however has the lowest number of cases per 100,000 population in Wales, with a figure of 155.4.

On the issue of whether all students that test positive will be recorded as Ceredigion cases, Public Health Wales said: “If students have registered with a GP in Aberystwyth or used their temporary address in Aberystwyth when applying for a Covid-19 test then they would be included in the Ceredigion statistics. However, if they have not registered with a GP and they use their permanent address when applying for a test, they would be considered in the statistics of their home county.”

With 11 local authorities in Wales now in local lockdown, Dr Giri Shankar, Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “In the areas where local restrictions have been announced or brought into place (the council areas of Neath Port Talbot, Vale of Glamorgan, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly County, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport and Rhondda Cynon Taf and the town of Llanelli), then those rules must be followed. Details of these rules can be found on the Welsh Government website.

“We are continuing to see a steady increase in cases in many communities across Wales, and our investigations show that many of these have been transmitted due to a lack of social distancing.

“The council areas of Anglesey, Carmarthenshire, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Flintshire are all areas of concern to us and we are watching the data from there carefully, but numbers of cases are increasing in all parts of Wales so there is no room for complacency in any area.

“We are also seeing an increase in the number of people who are seriously ill and have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

“We are concerned that much of the good work conducted over the past few months is at risk of going to waste. If the situation continues to worsen, we may find ourselves at the same levels of infection that we experienced earlier this year in March and April, and with that comes the potential for more extended restrictions to be imposed nationally.”