Over 3,000 positive COVID cases in Derry & Strabane in last 7 days

The data released by the Department of Health shows that between midnight on Tuesday December 28th and midnight on Wednesday, December 29th, 591 people had tested positive.

That brings the total number of cases in Derry & Strabane in the week since December 23 to 3,665, giving a rate per 100,000 people of 2422.6.

The number of new cases is more than double the number confirmed here in the previous week.

In terms of the breakdown locally of the positive cases over the past week, in Derry & Strabane, 603 cases involved children and young people aged 0-19.

The bulk of the cases however were in people aged 20-39, accounting for 1,949 cases.

There were a further 855 cases in people aged 40-59, and 258 cases among people aged 60 or over.

Overall over the last seven days in the north of Ireland there were 31,643 positive COVID cases recorded.

A total of 18 people with a positive diagnosis have died in that period.

In the Western Trust 15 people have been admitted into hospital with COVID19 in the past week, the lowest number of any of the Trusts in NI.

Meanwhile 13 people have been discharged in the west.

Of those in Altnagelvin Hospital, 8.05% of patients were COVID positive.