BREAKING: 9 further COVID-19 deaths in Northern Ireland and 549 new cases of the virus

By Peter Moor

9 more people have died in Northern Ireland having contracted COVID-19 according to the Department of Health.

There has now been 878 COVID-19 related deaths in Northern Ireland according to the Department.

This number mainly covers hospital related deaths unlike the figures released by NISRA on Friday which said 1,141 people had died in connection with COVID-19.

NISRA uses information based on death certificates whereas the Department of Health only records people who die after testing positive for the virus.

549 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Northern Ireland in the past 24 hours.

In the past seven days, the Department of Health has recorded 3,724 new cases of Coronavirus.

It brings the total number of infections here since the start of the pandemic to 47,711 infections,

449 people with COVID-19 are in hospitals across Northern Ireland with 44 of these being in intensive care beds, 35 being on ventilators.

62 ICU beds are being occupied by other non-COVID-19 patients.

Therefore, there are now 25 ICU beds unoccupied across the region's hospitals.

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The Department of Health data also showed 165 care homes here now have confirmed outbreaks of the virus, with 3 having suspected outbreaks.

269 care homes now have closed outbreaks.