One new COVID-19 related death and 77 new cases of the virus

By Peter Moor

One new Coronavirus related death has been announced here by the Department of Health.

There has now been 563 deaths linked to COVID-19 confirmed by the Department.

This number mainly covers hospital related deaths unlike the figures released by NISRA on Friday which said 871 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.

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

In the past seven days, the Department of Health has recorded 467 new cases of Coronavirus.

It brings the total number of infections here since the start of the pandemic to 7,442.

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The Department of Health data also showed 21 care homes here now have confirmed outbreaks of the virus, with 5 having suspected outbreaks.

181 care homes now have closed outbreaks.

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

3 patients with COVID-19 are now in intensive care, with 80 ICU beds being occupied by other non-COVID-19 patients.

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