17 more deaths in Northern Ireland due to Covid-19 as ambulance crews from the Republic support the NI health service

By Q Radio news

Another 17 people with Covid-19 have died in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health has confirmed.

A further 640 new cases of the virus have also been reported in the past 24 hours.

Of the 427 people admitted to hospital - 30 remain in intensive care.

On Saturday there were 427 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals, including 30 in ICU.

The hospital occupancy rate stood at 101%.

There are 82 active outbreaks of coronavirus in care homes across the region.

Ireland’s Health Service Executive chief Paul Reid said crews from the Irish National Ambulance Services had begun working alongside colleagues from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service on Friday night.

(An ambulance from the National Ambulance Service in the republic at Newry's Daisy Hill hospital)

“People’s health [is] taking priority,” he said.

Ireland’s National Ambulance Service tweeted it was working alongside its Northern Ireland Ambulance Service colleagues in Belfast.

The Executive unanimously agreed on Thursday to impose a sweeping six-week lockdown which will come into force on Boxing Day.

The first week of those measures will see the toughest lockdown yet in Northern Ireland, with a form of curfew in operation from 8pm, shops closed from that time and all indoor and outdoor gatherings prohibited until 6am.

Non-essential retail will close throughout the six weeks, as will close contact services. Hospitality outlets will be limited to takeaway services.

Organised sport will also be banned, with elite sport included in the prohibition for the first week.

Northern Ireland’s political leaders have clashed amid a blame game over the region’s spiralling Covid-19 infection rates.

First Minister Arlene Foster claimed a drop in compliance with regulations was down to the attendance of senior Sinn Fein figures at the funeral of IRA veteran Bobby Storey at a time when strict limits on numbers applied.

The DUP leader, who also spoke of a failure of society as a whole, made the claims after Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill accused the DUP of acting against public health advice in opposing more robust measures earlier in the pandemic.

On Tuesday, queues of ambulances were witnessed at accident and emergency departments (EDs) across Northern Ireland as patients were treated in car parks due to a lack of capacity inside hospitals.

At one point, 17 ambulances containing patients were lined up outside the ED at Antrim Area Hospital.