486 COVID-19 cases in a week but drop in tests leads to just 11 positives yesterday

New figures released by the Department of Health this afternoon show there was a sharp drop in both tests and positive cases in Derry and Strabane yesterday.

Just 110 laboratory tests were completed and only 11 of these were registered as positive.

However, this belies the fact that over the past seven days 486 people have tested positive for the illness, which is higher than the 425 recorded cases in Belfast over the same period.

Moreover the rolling seven day case rate per 100,000 in the city and district is now 322.6, two and a half times that of Belfast's 124.5, and over three times that of the northern average of 105.2.

And more people tested positive for the disease in Derry and Strabane between September 24 and September 30 (486) than between the beginning of the pandemic and Sunday, September 20 (440).

The number of cases has risen from 483 last Tuesday, September 22, to 1,082 yesterday - more than doubling in just over a week.

Thirteen people remained in Western Trust hospitals with the illness at midnight on Wednesday but the daily update from the Department of Health shows that one patient, aged between 20 and 39, was discharged from Altnagelvin on Tuesday.

Most cases involved people in the younger age bands: 20-39 (243), 40-59 (126) and 0-19 (78).

According to the Department of Health there were 32 confirmed positive cases among people aged 60 to 79 and eight positive cases among people aged over 80 between September 24 and 30.