CORONAVIRUS continues to tighten its grip in Wales, with another terrible week seeing the death toll and number of cases accelerate ever faster.

Anyone in any doubt as to how dangerous and contagious this virus is, should - given the simple numbers involved - no longer be fooling themselves.

This time last week, there had been 48 deaths from coronavirus in Wales, and 1,241 confirmed cases.

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But the past seven days have seen the toll increase at a frightening pace.

The latest figures from Public Health Wales show there have now been 166 deaths in Wales, and 3,197 confirmed cases.

The number of deaths has thus more than tripled in a week, and the number of confirmed cases has comfortably more than doubled.

In Gwent, cases have almost doubled in a week, from 541 to 1,020.

The latter figure remains the largest for any single health board area in Wales, but as the week has progressed, cases in the neighbouring health board areas of Cardiff & Vale and Cwm Taf Morgannwg have increased.

Cardiff & Vale now has 815 confirmed cases, due to a daily increase of 92. This was a much higher daily increase than in Gwent (65). In the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board area the daily increase was 94, or almost 25 per cent.

Wales’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton posited last month that proximity to England was a reason why Gwent had far more coronavirus cases than other parts of south Wales.

South Wales Argus:

Dr Frank Atherton

The subsequent narrowing of the gap with neighbouring health board areas suggests a westward progression of the virus, also forecast by experts.

The pressure our hospitals are under was illustrated by Royal Gwent Hospital critical care consultant Dr David Hepburn - back in the thick of it after suffering a bout of coronavirus himself. He said in a video message that intensive care capacity had been breached, meaning operating theatres were having to be used to house ventilated patients.

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Dr David Hepburn was back at work in critical care at the Royal Gwent Hospital after a bout of coronavirus

The past week has been marked too by ongoing wrangles over the availability or otherwise of personal protective equipment for frontline NHS staff, in Wales, and the rest of the UK.

A hot topic too has been testing, not least over the number being carried out, which has so far singularly failed to match UK Government forecasts.

There has been criticism too in Wales, that the Welsh Government is not doing enough to maximise testing capacity quickly enough, with offers from universities with laboratory facilities.

Wales can currently carry out 1,110 tests a day, but hopes to go up to 9,000 a day by the end of April.

A massive ramping up of NHS capacity is going on across the UK however, manifesting in Wales in plans to provide more than 6,000 extra hospital beds - including 350 at the as-yet-unfinished Grange University Hospital near Cwmbran.

The NHS in Wales will take on 2,500 new staff, including retired professionals, GP locums and trainees.

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More than 1,000 new ventilators are being bought for hospitals across Wales, with hundreds more being redeployed to critical care from other departments

Meanwhile, the public is responding with magnificent vigour to fundraising campaigns to help the NHS and - beyond immediate healthcare - the charities who support it directly or indirectly.

Abbie Merrett, from Bettws, Newport, is one person who has marshalled the support of the wider public to raise money for the NHS.

Ms Merrett set up a fundraising social media page that brought in £2,000 in just a week, to help re-supply Gwent health board staff with vital equipment.

South Wales Argus:

Abbie Merret, with daughter Airah-Mae.

She is overjoyed at the “amazing” response from the public and is putting the money towards the health board charity’s own social media fundraising effort.

More stories on this and other wonderful fundraising and support projects can be found in a special supplement in today's Argus.