Almost 100 COVID-19 related deaths in care homes and hospices across NI by April 17 - NISRA

A further three cases of people who contracted the virus having tragically passed away in hospices.

These 96 deaths have occurred across 44 separate establishments.

The latest data from the NI Statistics and Research Agency accounts for the deaths up until last Friday, April 17th.

The deaths in care homes accounts for one in three all deaths in the north so far from COVID-19.

Of the 276 total deaths involving Covid-19 occurring up until April 17, 166 (60.1%) occurred in hospital, 93 (33.7%) occurred in care homes, 3 (1.1%) in hospices and 14 (5.1%) occurred at private addresses or other locations.

The comparative number of deaths reported daily by the Public Health Agency to 17th April was 212. These figures are based on patients having previously tested positive for the virus, whereas NISRA figures are based on the information entered on death certificates, filled out by medical professionals.

The provisional number of total deaths registered in Northern Ireland in the week ending April 17 was 424, 11 fewer than in week 14 but 134 more than the 5-year average of 290. One hundred and one (23.8%) of these deaths mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, bringing the total number of Covid-19 related deaths registered in the calendar year 2020 to 242.

Over the last 3 weeks in total, 410 ‘excess deaths’ (deaths above the average for the corresponding week in previous years) have been registered in Northern Ireland.

Males accounted for around half (49.0%) of all registered deaths in the calendar year 2020 to 17 April and slightly more than half (54.1%) of the 242 Covid-19 related deaths registered over the same period.

The majority of all deaths registered in week 15 and the year-to-date were of persons aged 75 and above. This age group accounted for two-thirds of all deaths and almost 75% of Covid-19 related deaths in the year-to-date up to 17th April.

There have been 5,245 deaths registered in the year-to-date, 30.3% of which (1,589) were classified as ‘respiratory’. The number and proportion of respiratory deaths is lower in the year-to-date than the 5-year average of 1,613 (31.7%)