Another 14 people die in NI after contracting Covid19

A further 14 people have died of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland.

Thirteen of the deaths occurred in the past 24 hours.

The Department of Health also confirmed an additional 433 positive cases of the virus on Sunday.

There were 796 patients with Covid-19 in hospital on Sunday morning including 74 in ICU.

It comes as the health secretary Matt Hancock revealed "early evidence" shows tough restrictions around the UK are starting to bring the number of new infections down, but he warned the NHS remains under "enormous" pressure.

He said "I really worry" about new COVID-19 variants not yet discovered and admitted the government is not sure whether schools in England will reopen fully by Easter.

Pressed on when lockdown will be eased, he said the current rules are helping "bring cases down" but that the country is a "long, long, long way from them being low enough".

Speaking to Sophy Ridge On Sunday, Mr Hancock said: "We should be worried enough, all of us, about this pandemic to follow the rules and it is just so important that people do.

"This morning I've come out of my formal self-isolation, I haven't actually left the house yet because I haven't needed to."

Delivering the latest vaccine news, Mr Hancock said 75% of all people aged 80 and over have now had their first coronavirus jab.

And he said the UK has given out more vaccines in the last three days than France has in total since the global race for inoculation against coronavirus began.

Mr Hancock dismissed press reports earlier this week that said £500 payments will be given to anyone who catches the disease to encourage them to properly self-isolate, saying "that isn't government policy".

But he refused to say whether Britain's borders should be closed to protect people from new variants, given the ones discovered in South Africa and Brazil.