Biggest daily increase in cases with 424 new infections and 1 new death

By Peter Moor

424 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Northern Ireland in the past 24 hours - that is the biggest daily increase since the start of the pandemic.

Yesterday, 320 new cases were diagnosed here - which was, up until today, the highest daily total since the start of the pandemic.

In the past seven days, the Department of Health has recorded 1,950 new cases of Coronavirus.

It brings the total number of infections here since the start of the pandemic to 11,693.

One more person has died in Northern Ireland having contracted COVID-19 according to the Department of Health.

This death occurred sometime before 10am on 29th September.

There has been 579 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 896 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.

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The Department of Health data also showed 25 care homes here now have confirmed outbreaks of the virus, with 11 having suspected outbreaks.

207 care homes now have closed outbreaks.

The dashboard also provides information on the intensive care bed capacity throughout Northern Ireland

10 patients with COVID-19 are now in intensive care, with 69 ICU beds being occupied by other non-COVID-19 patients.

Therefore, there are now 14 ICU beds unoccupied across the region's hospitals.