Covid-19 related deaths in care homes have dropped by half, new figures released today show.
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) published their weekly stats on Friday morning showing 36 deaths happened in care homes occurred in care homes up to May 8.
By 1 May – the previous week – that figure was 72.
The highest number of deaths across Northern Ireland in one week since the beginning of the outbreak has been 119. That figure came in the final week of April.
The two previous weeks saw 114 and 117 deaths respectively.
However, the week ending May 8, saw that number drop significantly to 77.
Overall, Nisra has to date (May 8) recorded 599 coronavirus-related deaths in Northern Ireland with around 50% occurring in care homes.
The overall death toll, as of today, is expected to be much higher.
These latest figures less than 24 hours after the Executive announced plans to reopen garden centres and recycling centres from next Monday as part of the first steps to ease lockdown.
