Nine Covid-linked deaths in Northern Ireland in latest figures

The fatalities, in the week ending August 19, take the total number of coronavirus-linked deaths recorded by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) to 4,826.

The Nisra figure includes 3,367 deaths in hospital, 1,003 in care homes and 456 at residential addresses, hospices or other locations.

Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate of 13 of the 320 deaths registered in the week to August 19.

Some of those deaths could have taken place earlier as they can take days to register.

Those aged 75 and over accounted for 73.8% of the Covid-related deaths registered between March 19, 2020 and August 19 this year.

Meanwhile Covid-19 infections in the UK are continuing to fall and are now at their lowest level for more than two months, other figures show.

A total of 1.4 million people in private households are estimated to have had the coronavirus in the week to August 16, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is a drop of 16% from 1.7 million the previous week.

Infections hit 3.8 million in early July during the spread of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the virus, but have fallen in recent weeks.

A new booster jab will be offered to everyone in the UK aged 50 and over from next month.

Some 1.2 million people in England were likely to have tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to August 16, the equivalent of around one in 45, the ONS said.

In Wales, infections stood at 65,500 in the latest week, or one in 45 people, compared with 72,600, or one in 40, in the previous survey.

The latest estimate for people testing positive in Scotland is 135,000, or around one in 40, down from 164,100, or one in 30.

In Northern Ireland, infections were estimated to be 26,400, or one in 70 people, down from 36,600, or one in 50.