One new death linked to COVID-19 in Northern Ireland

By Peter Moor.

One new death linked to COVID-19 has been announced here.

This is the first new death to be reported here since Saturday, after four consecutive days without any new fatalities being announced.

The death toll from the virus therefore stands at 538.

The news comes as the Executive is meeting to discuss potential easements to lockdown measures.

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.

New NISRA figures are expected to be released tomorrow morning.

Today's Department of Health figures also show that a total of 1,185 people have tested positive for Coronavirus in the region.

4 of these are newly diagnosed cases.

The data from the Department of Health dashboard also revealed 56 care homes currently have confirmed outbreaks of COVID-19.

28 care homes have suspected outbreaks and 88 have closed outbreaks of the virus.

There are now more care homes in Northern Ireland with closed outbreaks of COVID-19, than there are homes with confirmed or suspected outbreaks.

The figures also provide detail of capacity in Northern Ireland's hospitals.

It revealed that out of Northern Ireland's 98 intensive care unit beds, only 8 are occupied by patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19.

Another 66 of the beds are taken up by non COVID-19 related patients, providing 24 spare ICU beds.