NEW figures out today reveal that almost half of Coronavirus-related deaths in the North of Ireland have occurred in care homes.
The NI Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) has published its weekly bulletin detailing the latest figures.
It records all fatalities with COVID-19 recorded on a death certificate.
Of the 516 deaths Nisra recorded by 1 May, 232, or 45%, occurred in care homes, 253 (49.0%) occurred in hospital and four (0.8%) occurred in hospices.
There were seven (5.2%) deaths at residential addresses or another location.
For the second week running, more people died in care homes than in a hospital setting.
There have been 20 confirmed deaths in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area to date from COVID-19.
Meanwhile, in the week ending 1 May, 61.7% of the 115 Coronavirus related deaths were in care homes, up from 57% in the previous week.
The deaths in care homes and hospices involved 66 separate establishments, Nisra reported.
Two sets of figures are published in the North of Ireland:
A daily set produced by the Department of Health, which counts mostly hospital deaths
The weekly statistics from Nisra, which cover all fatalities where Coronavirus has been recorded on the death certificate
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.
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