BREAKING: 11 further COVID-19 related deaths in Northern Ireland and 79 new cases of the virus

By Peter Moor

11 more people have died in Northern Ireland having contracted COVID-19 according to the Department of Health.

There has now been 947 COVID-19 related deaths in Northern Ireland according to the Department.

This number mainly covers hospital related deaths unlike the figures released by NISRA on Friday which said 1,141 people had died in connection with COVID-19.

NISRA uses information based on death certificates whereas the Department of Health only records people who die after testing positive for the virus.

79 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Northern Ireland in the past 24 hours.

However, this number may be subject to change as the Department of Health it has received a lower amount of information than normal on completed laboratory tests under the pillar 2 system run by the Department of Health and Social Care in the UK.

In the past seven days, the Department of Health has recorded 2,452 new cases of Coronavirus.

It brings the total number of infections here since the start of the pandemic to 50,143

445 people with COVID-19 are in hospitals across Northern Ireland with 37 of these being in intensive care beds, 29 being on ventilators.

60 ICU beds are being occupied by other non-COVID-19 patients.

Therefore, there are now 26 ICU beds unoccupied across the region's hospitals.

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The Department of Health data also showed 142 care homes here now have confirmed outbreaks of the virus, with none having suspected outbreaks.

303 care homes now have closed outbreaks.