THE Department of Health has reported a further 1,039 positive cases for Coronavirus in the North of Ireland in the last 24 hours.
That is a rise of 125 for figures it reported yesterday for Monday.
There has been five further deaths, one outside the last 24 hours, with the department’s total number of deaths, mostly in hospitals, now at 629.
Sadly, one of these deaths was reported in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area. This was a man in his 80s.
A total of 29,992 people have now tested positive in the North of Ireland to COVID-19 since the pandemic erupted here in March this year.
The Department says 289 people are in hospital with the deadly virus.
Thirty two patients are in intensive care units with confirmed Coronavirus, 26 of whom are on ventilators.
Bed occupany across all hospitals is now at 93 per cent.
In the Derry City and Strabane District Council area, a total of 4,566 people have tested positive for Coronavirus in the past seven months.
In the past 24 hours, a further 127 people in Derry and Strabane have returned a positive test, a fall 20 on the previous day.
Over the last week, 1,009 people within the council boundary have contracted the virus.
Six people have returned indeterminate test results.
The positive test rate in the council area is now up to 3,003 per 100,000 of population, according to the new figures.
This is the highest of any of the 11 councils in the North of Ireland.
The Department of Health has now recorded 31 deaths in hospital in the Derry City and Strabane District Council since the pandemic erupted here in March.
A total of 84 care homes are dealing with outbreaks of the virus with 226 closed outbreaks of COVID-19 in care homes.
Last Friday, the NI Statistics and Research Agency reported a further 11 Covid-19 related deaths had been registered in the North of Ireland in the week to Friday, October 9.
That is nine more than the previous week, according to the latest Nisra.
It counts deaths where the virus is mentioned on the death certificate.
Under that measure, the agency says 915 deaths were registered up to last Friday, including 495 in hospital.
It also details the deaths of 81 people normally resident in care homes.
Taking that figure into account, and the 356 people who died in care homes, it means care home residents account for almost half of all Covid-19 related deaths in NI (47.8%).
Nisra records that 30 people have now died in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area since March.
