A DOZEN new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in North Wales in the last day, health officials have said.

Public Health Wales figures show that 12 of Wales' 34 new cases were confirmed in the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board area.

Sadly, a further three people who had tested positive for coronavirus were confirmed to have died in in the last day - taking North Wales' total to 286.

Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board sits only behind Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board in terms of number of suspected coronavirus deaths in Wales.

The total number of North Wales cases now sits at 2,888 - the highest in Wales.

Dr Robin Howe, incident director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “Public Health Wales welcomes increased testing resulting from Welsh participation in the UK-wide system.

“From Thursday June 4, Public Health Wales is reporting the number of tests for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) undertaken on Welsh residents in Non-NHS Wales laboratories.

“These laboratories were established to support NHS laboratories in increasing COVID-19 testing capacity e.g. UK Lighthouse laboratories. They are currently receiving samples from a number of testing sites, such as the COVID-19 drive-through testing centres in England and from home testing kits.

“Today (Thursday) we are publishing as a separate tab of the dashboard an additional 12,191 tests undertaken by Welsh residents up to June 3.

“Of the total tests, 91 per cent recorded a negative test result, and four per cent were positive. Indeterminate test results accounted for the remaining five per cent.

“The patients will have been given their results, and will have been given advice to self-isolate."

Dr Howe added: “Contact tracing continues in Wales as part of the Welsh Government’s ‘Test, Trace, Protect’ strategy. Contact tracing is the process of identifying people who have come in contact with an individual with Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in order to prevent the risk of others spreading the infection in our communities.

“Anyone who has a positive Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) 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 were in contact with. You do not need to have any concerns about providing names to the tracing team. This is for everyone’s benefit and we are grateful for your continued cooperation."