NEW figures reveal that around 40 per cent of the deaths from Coronavirus in the North of Ireland have taken place in care homes.
The NI Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) has today, Friday, May 1, published its weekly breakdown of its fatalities.
It shows out of the 393 deaths recorded by Friday, April 24, 161 of them – about 40% – had occurred in care homes and hospices.
The deaths that occurred in care homes and hospices involved 57 separate establishments.
Two sets of figures are published in the North of Ireland.
There is a daily set of statistics produced by the Department of Health, which count mostly hospital deaths, and then there are the weekly statistics from Nisra, which cover all fatalities where Coronavirus has been recorded on the death certificate.
The daily figures are also based on deaths where a patient had tested positive for the virus.
Nisra said that by 24 April, it had recorded 393 deaths from Covid-19 while the Department of Health had recorded 299 deaths by the same date.
The Department of Health has said there is always a time lag for registering deaths in the community, with the process taking up to five days, and that the Nisra report could not feasibly be linked to the daily figures.
The total death toll is ultimately likely to be higher.
In its bulletin covering the period to Friday, April 24, Nisra said there were 209 hospital deaths, 158 in care homes, three in hospices and 23 at residential addresses or other locations.
The Department of Health will later this afternoon announce how many people have sadly lost their lives over the last 24 hours.
Health Minister Robin Swann said on Thursday that the North of Ireland was past the peak of infections but warned it was too early to release the lockdown rules.
The total number of deaths in UK hospitals is 26,771, after a further 674 were announced yesterday.
In the Republic, the number of deaths stands at 1,232 after 43 more were confirmed on Thursday.
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