Derry COVID-19 rate falls below 90 cases per 100,000 for first time since September

Between February 3 and February 9, there were 135 confirmed positive cases of the virus in the district giving a seven day rate per 100,000 of 89.6, down from 94.2 on Tuesday.

Derry/Strabane is still recording the fourth lowest coronavirus rate in the north. The lowest rates are in Fermanagh and Omagh (71.9), Lisburn and Castlereagh (82) and Ards and North Down (87).

Rates remain higher in Mid Ulster (244), Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (208.7), Belfast (141.5), Newry, Mourne and Down (137.1), Antrim and Newtownabbey (131.8), Mid and East Antrim (106.1) and Causeway Coast and Glens (93.6).

The daily change in the cumulative number of patients with a positive test in Derry and Strabane between February 8 and February 9 was 14.

In total 10,871 people have now tested positive for the illness in Derry and Strabane.

At midnight on Tuesday 60 patients were being treated as COVID-19 inpatients across all Western Trust hospitals. This is as low as it has been since October 14 (58).

Yesterday two more people were admitted to Altnagelvin with the illness: a woman in her fifties and man in his sixties.

Five of ten (50%) ICU beds at Altnagelvin were being used to treat COVID-19 patients; five (50%) were occupied by patients with other conditions and there were no staffed ICU beds free, according to Department of Health figures released this afternoon.

Eight ICU patients in total were being ventilated - five were COVID-19 patients and three were non-COVID-19 patients.

In terms of general occupancy 11.21% of beds at Altnagelvin were ‘COVID-19 occupied’, 82.73% were ‘other occupied’ and there was 1.82% capacity left in the hospital system: 4.24% were ‘awaiting admission.’