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A FURTHER 1,252 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Northern Ireland.
In its daily update, the NI Department of Health also said that a further five people with Covid-19 have died, bringing the death toll to 639.
There have been 32,286 confirmed cases, 6,893 in the last seven days.
There are currently 296 patients with Covid-19 being treated in hospital, with 34 in intensive care.
Furthermore, an estimated 1.01% of people in private households had Covid-19 in the two weeks from October 3 to 16, or around one in 100 people.
Because the infection survey has only been running in Northern Ireland for a short period, the UK’s Office for National Statistics said it is too early to comment on any trend on the proportion of population testing positive for Covid-19.
Due to a relatively small number of tests within the survey sample, the results should be treated with caution.
Based on swab test results from 2,932 participants collected over the two-week period, 28 people from 24 households tested positive.
Last night, Stormont ministers vowed to formulate a new coronavirus strategy that will avoid the need for another lockdown in Northern Ireland.
First Minister Arlene Foster said ramping up test and trace capacity, increasing hospital capacity, making businesses Covid-secure and introducing weekly testing regimes for key workers were among steps that could keep the region’s economy afloat in the absence of a vaccine.
“Obviously you could go down the road of having a circuit-breaker, then a break, then another circuit-breaker – we’re saying that we don’t think that is the way to proceed,” said the DUP leader.
Sinn Féin Junior Minister Declan Kearney said while nothing could be taken off the table, the Executive was not envisaging another lockdown.
Kearney said there was a need for a “huge cultural and behavioural shift” to increase compliance with basic anti-infection measures, so more severe steps could be avoided again.
Northern Ireland is in the first week of a four-week circuit-break. Pubs and restaurants are closed, except for takeaway and deliveries, and schools are shut for a fortnight.
At a meeting of the Stormont Executive yesterday, ministers agreed to a series of further financial measures for those impacted by the latest clampdown.
With reporting from PA
The situation in NI is way worse than we have down here, even the figures in hospitels and ICY are simuler eventhough we have 2.61 more in population.
There have been
32,286 confirmed cases, – that equivalent in the ROI- 84266
6,893 in the last seven days. – that equivalent in the ROI would be 17,991
They are complaining about it, if we had them figures down here we would be all locked in our houses.
@Declan Sweeney: ok yea
@Declan Sweeney: Just to comment, I don’t necessarily think ‘cases’ is a good measure of how well a country is performing. For example, we have exponentially increased our testing rates, which has subsequently led to an increased number in cases. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we are currently losing this covid battle, if anything, its a major improvement.
Better measures of how well a country is responding would be mortality and hospital/ICU numbers
@Bobby: But yet retail is still open! Unbelievable!
@Bobby:
Yess and with NI they have 2 figures for deaths,
DOH says they have had 639 deaths from the viris but that only counts for those who die in hospitels mostly
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\the stats office who deals with in hospitels, home, nursing homes and other places put the amount of deats up to Oct. 9th at 902 cases, so when they release the figures again that would be more than likely alot higher.
Numbers in hospitels and in ICU are both very high taking into consideration that we have 2.61 times the population
Sinn Fein complaining about possibly fines in the South, unwilling to tell people to stay in the North during these unprecedented times
@Michael Keegan:
According to themselves they are 2 different parties, SF in NI and SF in the ROI
God that’s awful and it only accounts for 6 counties yet they’re higher than the Republic. I don’t understand it, unless they’re popping back and forth from England
@Anna Carr: if you think people in NI constantly travelling back and forth to England is the issue then yes, you are correct. You do not understand it.
@Dermy: You obviously don’t know about the secret tunnel we have? Oh oh. This message will self distruct in 3……2…..
This debate should of happened in February.
The reason it didn’t was because of vested interests.
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