Rise in COVID-19 rate in Derry while Strabane now has the highest rate in the north

Between March 15 and March 21, there were 112 cases giving a seven day rate of 74.3, up from 73.7 on Sunday.

Derry/Strabane is recording the second highest coronavirus rate after a significant rise since last Thursday when it was 53.1. Mid Ulster (75.9) is the only area with a higher rate than Derry/Strabane.

Last week, in a paper to the Executive the Health Minister Robin Swann warned that while the restrictions have led to a reduction in cases they have not yet reduced to mid-September levels. He pointed out that the seven-day rate in Derry/Strabane was 27.9 per 100,000 on September 14.
According to figures released on Monday, the local rate is still over twice that. The daily change in patients with a positive test in Derry/ Strabane between March 20 and March 21 was 10.
In total 11,434 people have now tested positive here.

The seven-day rate on the cityside and Waterside has risen while Strabane now has the highest rate in the north.

Between March 15 and March 21 there were 47 cases in BT48 giving a rate per 100,000 of 77.2, an increase from 62.4 per 100,000 for the March 8 to March 14 period. In BT47 - the Waterside to Dungiven - there were 35 cases giving a rate per of 56.6, up on the figure of 35.6 recorded last week.
In Strabane (BT82) there were 40 cases giving a rate of 148.8. This was another significant rise from 107.8 last week.  
In Castlederg there were four cases giving a rate of 50.7.

Three people were admitted to Altnagelvin with COVID-19 over the weekend while it’s been confirmed that a further person who died with the virus in Derry/Strabane was a man aged over 80 who died in hospital on Sunday. This was the first death in over a week.In total 135 people have died with COVID-19 locally. Thirty-one people have died this year.

On Friday a woman in her 50s and a man in his 60s were admitted to Altnagelvin with Covid. A woman aged over 80 was admitted on Saturday.

At midnight on Sunday 34 people were being treated as coronavirus inpatients across all Western Trust hospitals.
Seven of 10 ICU beds at Altnagelvin were being used to treat COVID-19 patients; three were occupied by patients with other conditions and none were free. Six ICU patients in total were being ventilated - all were COVID-19 patients.

In terms of general occupancy 6.96% of beds at Altnagelvin were ‘COVID-19 occupied’.

87.03% were ‘other occupied’ and there was 1.58% capacity left in the system; 4.43% were ‘awaiting admission.’

In total 82,000 vaccine doses have now been administered at the three mass vaccination centres in Derry, Omagh and Enniskillen.

Across the north GPs have rolled out 329,000 jabs.