Coronavirus NI: Death toll rises to 1,625 - 640 new infections

So far 848 men and 776 women have died after testing positive for Coronavirus.

In the last 24 hours another 640 people were diagnosed with the infection.

That number rises to 6,647 in the last seven days.

A total of 96,001 people have now tested positive in NI.

At the moment there are 823 people with COVID-19 in our hospitals - and 65 battling the virus in ICU.

There are currently 139 people with confirmed COVID-19 in NI Care Homes.

The news comes as medics in NI face its potentially toughest week so far of the pandemic.

The British Medical Association has said while its doctors are “coping”, many feel they are unable to give care to the “standard they would want”.

It has been predicted that the peak in intensive care will happen next week.

The head of the BMA in NI, Dr Tom Black has been critical of the way this wave of the pandemic has been managed.

He said: “Staff will do their best in a very difficult situation, where many decisions in this pandemic were made too late.”

While it is expected the number of hospital admissions will peak sometime over the next eight to 10 days, the number requiring intensive care treatment is likely to continue increasing for at least another fortnight.

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