OVER 20 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in North Wales for the second successive day, the latest data shows.

Public Health Wales figures released on Thursday (September 10) show that 23 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the region in the last day.

Nationally, 102 new cases were confirmed, taking Wales' total to 18,931.

However, Public Health Wales states that due to a "technical issue" affecting the transfer of results from external lighthouse laboratories to NHS Wales, Thursday's data was extracted as at 5pm instead of the usual 1pm cut off.

This means a proportion of test results for the period 1pm 8/9/2020 to 5pm 9/9/2020 are not included in these figures and will be included in tomorrow’s (Friday's) update.

Of the 23 new cases confirmed in North Wales, five were in Gwynedd, four each in Wrexham, Flintshire, Conwy and on Anglesey and two in Denbighshire.

No new coronavirus-related deaths were registered in Wales in the last day, with the total number remaining at 1,597.

Dr Robin Howe, incident director for the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “It appears that as lockdown restrictions have eased, people have taken advantage of the greater possibilities for activities, but they seem to have forgotten the importance of social distancing – resulting in possible transmission in the wider community.

“It is clear that the virus spreads more easily in indoor settings, and people should take extra care to socially distance in these cases to keep themselves and their friends and families as safe as possible.

“Contact tracing continues as part of the Welsh Government’s Test, Trace, Protect strategy. Anyone who has a positive Coronavirus test will be contacted by a team of contact tracers, and asked for details of everyone they have had close contact with while they have had symptoms.

“Please keep a note of your activities so you can easily remember your whereabouts on a given day, along with who you were in contact with.

“If you are asked to self-isolate, you should do so to prevent further spread of the virus."