BREAKING: No new COVID-19 related deaths for second day running and 9 new cases

By Peter Moor.

For the second day running, no new COVID-19 related deaths have been announced in Northern Ireland by the Department of Health.

The death toll linked to the virus therefore remains at 556.

This figure is lower than figures released on Friday by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)

They reported 839 COVID-19 related deaths here up to 3rd July.

NISRA figures relate to information entered on death certificates, completed by medical professionals.

They may or may not have previously tested positive for the virus.

Whereas. Department of Health figures are based on mainly hospital patients having previously tested positive for the virus.

The data from the Department of Health dashboard also revealed 9 more people have tested positive for the virus here.

There have now been 5,799 positive lab tests for COVID-19 in Northern Ireland.

The figures also show 11 care homes currently have confirmed outbreaks of COVID-19.

13 care homes have suspected outbreaks and 154 homes have closed outbreaks of the virus.

The figures also provide detail of capacity in Northern Ireland's hospitals.

It revealed that out of Northern Ireland's 97 intensive care unit beds, one is occupied by a patient with COVID-19.

79 of the beds are taken up by non COVID-19 related patients, providing 17 spare ICU beds.