Public Health Wales has defended its reporting process after Powys county councillors criticised the national body for appearing to under report the number of Covid-19 deaths and lulling residents into a false sense of security.
PHW reports that there have been 14 deaths connected to the virus, while the Office of National Statistics has published that there are sadly 86 deaths in the county to date.
However, while PHW includes those that have died with confirmed Covid-19 in Powys itself, the OSN figure includes deaths that may not have even been tested for the virus, but were suspected of having it, and also those who had died at hospitals outside of Powys.
A Public Health Wales spokesperson explained to our MyWelshpool site: “Public Health Wales endeavours to offer up-to-date and accurate data on the Coronavirus pandemic in a completely transparent way to the Welsh public.
“The data Public Health Wales provides on our website is intended to provide a rapid reporting system, and includes deaths in acute hospitals and care homes, where these have been reported to us, of people with confirmed Coronavirus. Official statistics relating to the Coronavirus outbreak are produced by the Office of National Statistics, and include reports of both confirmed Coronavirus and suspected Coronavirus, i.e. where no testing for Coronavirus was done.
“Since June 5, our data dashboard has been updated to include the number of deaths reported in Wales by the Office of National Statistics on a weekly basis.
“This data shows deaths by area of residence, and not by hospital location. It therefore provides a more accurate picture in areas where there are no acute hospitals, and addresses issues relating to the reporting of coronavirus deaths in Powys.”