1 new death related to COVID-19 in Northern Ireland

By Peter Moor

1 new death related to COVID-19 has been announced in Northern Ireland by the Department of Health.

543 people have now died having contracted the virus here.

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

They reported 779 COVID-19 related deaths here up to 5th June.

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 8 more people have been tested positive for the virus here.

There have now been 4,862 positive lab tests for COVID-19 in Northern Ireland.

The figures also show 50 care homes currently have confirmed outbreaks of COVID-19.

23 care homes have suspected outbreaks and 99 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 105 intensive care unit beds, only 3 are occupied by patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, with all of these patients being on ventilators.

Another 62 of the beds are taken up by non COVID-19 related patients, providing 40 spare ICU beds.