Altnagelvin 0.39% over capacity with latest admissions including man aged 20-39 and woman in her 40s

A man and a woman in their 80s were also admitted to the Derry hospital on Wednesday, according to Department of Health figures.

A hundred and seventeen people were being treated as coronavirus inpatients in Western Trust hospitals at midnight on Wednesday.

This is a higher figure than was recorded during the second wave of the pandemic in October and November and much higher than the first wave last April.

Altnagelvin is currently 0.89 per cent over capacity.

Derry/Strabane COVID-19 rate back to pre-Christmas level and lower than anywhere bar Ards and North Down

Six of twelve (50%) ICU beds at Altnagelvin are being used to treat COVID-19 patients; five (41.67%) are occupied by patients with other conditions. One bed is classed as free (8.33%) although the 'Journal' understands 13 ICU beds are currently staffed and this can be increased to 16 to meet the demands of the surge.

In terms of general occupancy 20.41 per cent of beds at Altnagelvin are 'COVID-19 occupied', 73.67 per cent are 'other occupied' and the hospital is 0.89 per cent over capacity: 5.92 per cent are 'awaiting admission' according to the latest data.

Four ICU patients in total are being ventilated - one is a COVID-19 patient and three are non-COVID-19 patients.

Two women over 80 have died with COVID-19 in residential care setting in Derry/Strabane

This week Director of Performance at the Western Trust Teresa Molloy confirmed that local hospitals are now dealing with an influx of COVID-19 patients who were infected over the Christmas period in addition to patients who had already been admitted before Christmas.

"Our admissions, across the two hospitals are expected to be between 15 and 25 a day, over the next period of a week to ten days," said Mrs. Molloy on Tuesday.

"Back in October when we had our second surge our admissions everyday were between 10 and 20. So we have dealt with and coped with much higher levels of admissions a day but we do have in our hospitals a lot of COVID-19 patients at the moment. So these would be admissions on top of the existing COVID-19 patients," she explained.