Northern Ireland: Covid-19 cases almost double in a week

Almost 300 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Northern Ireland in the last seven days, according to figures released by the North’s Department of Health on Sunday.

A total of 288 new cases were identified, almost double the 146 confirmed in the previous seven-days.

The department said it was notified of 27 cases on Sunday after the confirmation of 65 infections was announced on Saturday.

Mid and east Antrim counted the greatest number of Covid-19 cases identified in the past seven days – 74 cases. There were 60 cases in Belfast and 48 in Antrim and Newtownabbey. The lowest number was in Fermanagh and Omagh, where only two cases were identified.

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In total 6,391 people in Northern Ireland have tested positive for Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, and 176,998 people have been tested for the virus.

The rate of coronavirus infection has been rising in the North in recent weeks, with the reproduction rate of the virus estimated at around 1.6 on Thursday.

The department said the rising number of cases was partly due to increased testing in the context of the contact-tracing service, but community transmission had also gone up and hospital admissions have started to rise, albeit at a low level.

Seven people with coronavirus are currently in hospital in the North, and one is in intensive care.

The department had previously stopped updating its dashboard of Covid-19 data at weekends, as infection rates fell.

However, it resumed publishing testing data this weekend, though statistics on deaths are only updated between Monday and Friday.

One further coronavirus-related fatality was recorded by the department on Friday, bringing the total to 558.

The department’s figures relate mainly to deaths in hospital, and include only patients who had previously tested positive for the virus.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) releases weekly data which includes all fatalities that mention coronavirus on the death certificate.

In its latest release on Friday NISRA said it had counted 859 such fatalities since up to August 7th.