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Covid-19 to blame for 94 more deaths last week according to latest NISRA figures

The figure up to April 24 showed 161 deaths in care homes and hospices and involved 57 separate establishments

Pensioner old person care home

There were 94 more deaths not accounted for in daily bulletins released by the Department of Health up until last Friday.

The latest figures have just been released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) this morning (Friday).

They show that 109 deaths involving Covid-19 occurred in the week April 18 to 24.

Of these, 40 occurred in hospital, 63 in care homes, and six at home.

NISRA says that up until last Friday a total of 393 deaths involving Covid‑19 occurred.

The deaths that occurred in care homes and hospices involved 57 separate establishments.

The comparative number of deaths reported daily by the Department of Health up until April 24 was 299 – 94 less than those detailed this morning.

Some 209 were in hospital, 158 in care homes and three in hospices, with 23 at residential addresses or other locations.

The 161 deaths in care homes and hospices involved 57 separate establishments.

The Department of Health figure of 299 is based on patients having previously tested positive for the virus, whereas NISRA figures are based on the information entered on death certificates, filled out by medical professionals.

They may or may not have previously tested positive for the virus.

Separate analyses based on the date of death registration, shows that the provisional number of total deaths registered in Northern Ireland in the week ending 24th April 2020 (week 16) was 470, 46 more than in week 15 and 186 more than the 5-year average of 284. Over the last four weeks in total, 596 ‘excess deaths’ (deaths above the average for the corresponding period in previous years) have been registered in Northern Ireland.

Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate for 128 (27.2%) of the 470 deaths registered in week 16, bringing the total number of Covid-19 related deaths registered in the calendar year 2020 to 370.

Males accounted for around half of all registered deaths (49.1%) and the 370 Covid‑19 related deaths (50.3%) in the calendar year to 24 April.

Persons aged 75 and over accounted for two-thirds of all deaths and 75.1% of Covid‑19 related deaths registered this calendar year up to 24th April.

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