Coronavirus death tally in NI passes 3,000 mark

The Department of Health at Stormont reported a further four deaths on Thursday afternoon, bringing the total number reported since the beginning of the pandemic in Northern Ireland to 3,002.

The department’s figures are based on the fatalities where patients had tested positive for the virus within 28 days of their death.

Another measure of coronavirus fatalities, updated on a weekly basis by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), surpassed the 3,000 several months ago and is now set to breach the 4,000 mark with the latest update, expected to be published on Friday.

NISRA record all deaths where coronavirus is entered on a death certificate by a medical professional as a contributory factor, regardless of whether test results had been recorded.

NISRA’s figures are believed to include large numbers of patients who died with the virus early in the pandemic, when the widespread testing regime currently in place had yet to be rolled out.

The latest update, which covers the period up to December 17, showed that by that date there had been a total of 3,988 coronavirus-linked deaths in Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health has also reported a further 6,877 new coronavirus infections.

Since the pandemic began, a total of 446,502 tests have returned positive results in Northern Ireland.

With the latest case number bringing the total for the past seven days to 49,270, that means more than a tenth of all cases recorded in Northern Ireland since the beginning of the pandemic came during the past week.