NORTHERN IRELAND HAS recorded 726 new cases of Covid-19, a day after it recorded close to 1,000 cases of the virus. 

The North’s Department of Health confirmed the figures this afternoon. Yesterday, 934 new cases were announced - highest number recorded to date and more than twice the previous daily high of 424 recorded on Wednesday.

A total of 13,612 cases have now been confirmed to date in Northern Ireland. 

Today, one death was also confirmed, bringing the total death toll in Northern Ireland from Covid-19 to 583.

Derry and Strabane remain among some of the worst affected areas on the island and in the UK. The seven-day incidence rate in the area is 478.5 per 100,000. 

The NI chief scientific advisor Professor Ian Young has said the Executive will have little alternative but to opt for a full lockdown in the Derry City and Strabane area if soaring infection rates were not suppressed. 

Households across Northern Ireland have already been barred from mixing indoors in private homes.

Last month, Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn met counterpart in the North Michael McBride. In a joint statement, they asked people to “avoid all but necessary travel across the border”. 

Yesterday, Northern Ireland’s Minister for Health Robin Swann issued a joint statement with health minister Stephen Donnelly. 

The statement said that the two ministers “discussed the importance of cross-border relationships in dealing with the pandemic and Ministers welcomed the close and productive cooperation that has taken place between Health Ministers, Chief Medical Officers and health administrations to deliver an effective public health response”.