Northern Ireland’s weekly Covid death toll drops to 10

A nurse disinfects work surfaces at the Mater Hospital Covid-19 recovery ward in Belfast. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

Northern Ireland’s weekly Covid-19 death toll has dropped to 10.

This is down from 14 deaths involving the virus recorded in the week to April 9, according to data from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).

The overall toll to the week ending April 16 now stands at 2,947.

The data from the week April 10 to April 16 provides a broader picture of the impact of Covid-19 than the death toll reported by Stormont’s Department of Health.

The department’s statistics focus primarily on hospital deaths, and only include people who have tested positive for the virus.

Nisra obtains its data from death certificates on which Covid-19 is recorded as a factor by a medical professional, regardless of where the death took place or whether the patient tested positive.

The statistics agency reports its Covid-19 data with a lag of a week.

The department’s death toll was 2,134 on April 16.

Of the 2,947 Covid-19 related deaths, 1,945 (66%) took place in hospital, 772 (26.2%) in care homes, 14 (0.5%) in hospices and 216 (7.3%) at residential addresses or other locations.

Nisra reported that up to April 16, the deaths of 1,008 care home residents were linked to Covid-19.

Of these, 76.6% (772) occurred in a care home, with the remaining 236 occurring in hospital.

Care home residents make up 34.2% of all Covid-19 related deaths.

Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate of 16 (5.5%) of the 289 deaths registered in the week ending April 16, an increase of seven from the previous week.

Nisra says the Easter public holiday in week 14 may have had an impact on this rise.

Meanwhile, Nisra has also found that across the pandemic, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon and Mid-Ulster local government districts have had higher proportions of Covid-19 related deaths (12.1% and 8.3% respectively), compared with their share of all deaths in Northern Ireland (10.4% and 6.5% respectively).

On the other end of the scale, Ards and North Down and Fermanagh and Omagh both have relatively low shares of registered Covid-19 related deaths when compared to the proportion of Northern Ireland deaths registered in those areas (2.4 and 2.5 percentage points respectively lower than their share of all deaths).