NEARLY 3,500 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded across Wales today, according to the latest figures.

These figures, which cover a 24-hour period up to 9am on Friday, show that 3,462 new cases were recorded across Wales, along with four new deaths.

48 of the new cases were recorded in Ceredigion, with Carmarthenshire recording 139 and Pembrokeshire recording 81.

Powys recorded 99 new cases with Gwynedd recording 105 of the 24 hour period.

Of the four deaths recorded today, two have been in the Betsi Cadwaladr region of north Wales, taking the total number of Covid-19 related fatalities in the region to 1,122.

No new deaths have been recorded in the Hywel Dda region of Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire with its total remaining at 620.

Powys has not recorded any new deaths today either, with its total remaining at 86.

A leading Welsh health expert warned today that Wales is ‘likely to see a tsunami of cases’ in the coming weeks.

On Saturday, a major incident was declared in London over the rise of Omicron cases in the city – with more than 10,000 being recorded across the UK on Saturday.

Dr Giri Shankar from Public Health Wales, speaking to the BBC Politics Wales programme, warned: “We appear to be a week or two behind what London, most parts of England, and Scotland are seeing.

"We need to make that work to our advantage because the higher the cover with booster vaccination, the better."

When asked on new restrictions that come into force in Wales on 27 December, Dr Shankar, added: “I think we may well see a situation where, despite all those measures and with good compliance to those measures, we may still find that the case numbers and the burden on the system may be such that we might need additional restrictions.”

On Saturday, there were 181 confirmed cases of Omicron in Wales, 22 more than the day before.

30 cases have been recorded in the Betsi Cadwaladr region with eight in Hywel Dda and five in Powys.

On Friday, Ceredigion County Council confirmed that no Omicron cases have been recorded in the county.