19 further deaths and 640 new Covid cases in Northern Ireland 

The figures come as a health trust boss warned that Northern Ireland’s hospital system is facing huge pressure. File picture

A further 19 people who previously tested positive for coronavirus have died in Northern Ireland.

According to Department of Health figures, another 640 individuals have tested positive for the virus.

There are now 823 individuals in hospitals in the region with Covid-19, 65 of whom are being treated in intensive care.

The figures come as a health trust boss warned on Sunday that Northern Ireland’s hospital system is facing huge pressure as it braces for the peak of Covid-19 patients needing intensive care treatment.

Jennifer Welsh, chief executive of the Northern Trust, outlined the situation in the two hospitals in her area, Antrim Area and Causeway.

“At the peak of the first wave in April across both Antrim and Causeway hospitals, the highest number of Covid positive patients that we had was 73 and then in November the highest number that we had was 102 and here we are beyond that, peaking on Thursday actually at 202 patients, we’ve just dropped below that just slightly,” she told BBC NI’s Sunday Politics programme.

“So huge pressure across the hospital system.” Ms Welsh said the hospitals were coping but only due to the “great cost” of cancelling other services, such as cancer surgeries.

“We have only been able to do this because we have had to stand down so many other things,” she said.