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A FURTHER 234 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Northern Ireland.
In its daily update, the NI Department of Health said that a further four people with Covid-19 have died, bringing the death toll to 2,000.
The latest figures bring the number of deaths on the island of Ireland since the start of the pandemic to almost 6,000.
Case numbers have declined significantly in Northern Ireland in recent weeks. It has been under strict lockdown restrictions since St Stephen’s Day.
Last night, there were 477 patients in Northern Irish hospitals with Covid-19, down from 655 a week ago. There are 59 patients with Covid-19 in an intensive care unit.
Over 400,000 vaccine doses have been administered in Northern Ireland so far, with the vast majority of these being first doses.
The Stormont Executive is set to discuss the re-opening of schools later this week.
Most schools have been closed since before the Christmas break as part of the lockdown.
Special schools have remained open and mainstream schools are open for the children of key workers.
Speaking earlier today, NI Public Health Agency official Dr Joanne McClean said that the risk of Covid-19 transmission is higher at school gates than in the classroom.
Schools are not the major source of transmission … the risk for the staff in the classroom is not higher than other workforces and part of that is due to the excellent measures that schools have put in place,” she told the BBC’s Stephen Nolan Show.
“Schools have done a huge amount, principals have worked themselves into the ground from September onwards to introduce ways of working in schools that are completely new to them.
But she added that children and staff “cannot be magicked” into school classrooms.
“There are two bits to this, there’s the bit that goes on in the classroom that schools can control … and then there is the bit that goes on outside the gates,” she said.
Dr McClean said schools being open adds an estimated 0.3-0.6 to the reproduction number, or R value, of the virus.
“Every single contact matters, where people meet, coronavirus has the opportunity to spread and this is why it is so difficult for the Executive, they have to strike a balance between keeping every single one of our interactions to a minimum but also allowing society to function is some way,” she said.
“Overall the message for every single one of us still is every single contact matters, keep your contacts as low as possible, stay at home and only have contact with other people when you really have to.”
With reporting from PA
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That’s an awful death toll for just six counties. RIP.
@DublinMufc❤️: Stick with the subject, you muppet.
@Colleen: ~28% of the population of the island with about 33% of the deaths. It’s not that far off the mark, considering NI would have less “work from home” jobs, etc.
@DublinMufc❤️: Keep on topic you brit club lover!
Thankfully my Mum and most of her circle of relatives and friends have received their first dose in the North, I wouldn’t care if I never got it as long as she does.
12,000 deaths with Covid in Sweden (10 million people, few restrictions)
6,000 deaths with Covid on the island of Ireland (5.5 million people, severe on and off restrictions)
Some serious questions need to be answered.
RIP to all who died.
@Oisín McGovern: You are correct, the Swedish government need to answer those questions.
@Setanta Stylfox: So does the Irish government. Their handling of the situation has been appalling since the end of the first lockdown
@Oisín McGovern: there are c. 4.9 million people in the Republic of Ireland. There are c. 1.85 million people in Northern Ireland, or c. 6.75 million on the island of Ireland. You’re missing 1.25 million people in your tally for the island of Ireland.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: Oisín trying to score political points using maths that don’t stack up! Bit like those magic money tree economics!
@Oisín McGovern: Your maths are more than a little off. This island has a covid death rate of 888.9 deaths per 1m, and Sweden has a rate 1230 deaths per 1m people. Also the Swedes are socially distant in non pandemic times. Last I heard the GDP drop there was as bad if not worse than some of their neighbours like the Finnish who are actually doing a good job.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&country=IRL~SWE®ion=World&deathsMetric=true&interval=total&perCapita=true&smoothing=0&pickerMetric=new_deaths_per_million&pickerSort=desc
have your say