BREAKING: No new deaths in Northern Ireland linked to COVID-19 for second day running

By Peter Moor.

No new deaths linked to COVID-19 have been announced by the Department of Health.

It means no new deaths from the virus have been reported since Saturday.

The death toll therefore remains at 534.

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

They reported 757 COVID-19 related deaths here up to 29th may.

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.

Today's Department of Health figures also show that a total of 4,802 people have tested positive for Coronavirus in the region.

6 of these are newly diagnosed cases.

The data from the Department of Health dashboard also revealed 62 care homes currently have confirmed outbreaks of COVID-19.

32  care homes have suspected outbreaks and 77 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 100 intensive care unit beds, only 9 are occupied by patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19.

Another 72 of the beds are taken up by non COVID-19 related patients, providing 19 spare ICU beds.