Two more deaths as hospitalisations for COVID-19 hit record levels in Western Trust

Two more deaths - of a woman aged 60-79 and a man aged over 80 - were confirmed by the Department of Health on Tuesday.

It brings to 30 the number of people from Derry and Strabane who have lost their lives, according to the DoH data.

Seventy people were in Western Trust hospitals at midnight last night.

And according to a breakdown of general occupancy by hospital, Altnagelvin is now 17.74 per cent 'COVID-19 occupied', 74.31 per cent 'other occupied' with 7.95 per cent capacity still available in the system.

In the South West Acute Hospital the figures are 7.65 per cent 'COVID-19 occupied' and 90.59 per cent 'other occupied' with 1.98 per cent capacity left over.

Six of eight ICU beds at Altnagelvin were occupied with COVID-19 patients, which is 75 per cent of capacity. In Altnagelvin three of the six COVID-19 patients in ICU are being ventilated, according to the DoH figures released this afternoon.

In the South West Acute Hospital two of five ICU beds were occupied - one by a COVID-19 patient and another by a patient with different requirements - leaving three unoccupied beds (60 per cent left over).

Between October 13 and October 19, 1,081 people tested positive in the Derry and Strabane area.

The daily change in the cumulative number of patients with a positive test in Derry and Strabane between October 18 and October 19 was 147.

The case rate for the combined Derry and Strabane council area has fallen again from 769.9 to 717.5 per 100,000.

However, while the case rate for the BT48 and BT47 postcode areas appeared to be falling over the weekend it has spiked again.

Yesterday the figure for the seven days figure for BT48 was 665.2 per 100,000 but that has now spiked to 1012.7 for the seven days October 12 to October 18.

Equally, BT47 was down to 530.4 yesterday but it has risen to 823.3.