RECENT statistics released by Public Health Wales (PHW) show the number of Covid-19 cases seems low - despite warnings that Omicron cases are increasing.

However, the data published daily by PHW may not tell the full story, as only positive PCR test results are included in these figures.

New rules came into effect on January 6 that mean those who had a positive lateral flow test do not need to have a PCR test.

Therefore, the reported cases on the daily PHW release may be lower than the actual number of real cases.

PHW also publish a weekly report on the amount of lateral flow test that have been registered on the gov.uk website.

Stephanie Howarth, the chief statistician for the Welsh Government, has warned that there is unlikely to be a clean break in the data.

This means that extra caution must be taken when examining trends based on the daily PHW stats and that while cases may appear to fall, the reality may be that case rates are the same.

Organisations such as Newport City Council and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) have both said that Covid cases are rising.

Newport City Council reminded the public of the Covid rules in Wales while ABUHB introduced an online contact tracing form because of the rising case rate.

Dr Ami Jones, an ICU consultant at the Grange University Hospital, recently said that there were "quite a lot of new Covid patients" coming into the hospital.