Every day the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland releases new figures about coronavirus.

These include how many people who have been diagnosed with Covid-19 have died in hospital and how many new cases have been diagnosed.

For more, here's a look at graphs illustrating some of these aspects of the outbreak.

County Armagh man Gerry Rafferty, who has been living and teaching in Milan, tells Good Morning Ulster the city is "tentatively moving into phase two" of lockdown, with the opening of a number of childrens clothes shops and laundrettes. However, it is very gradual, he says.

Although he has now been locked in for 40 days, the openings, represent "light at the end of the tunnel".

"There's been a massive decrease in new cases and people in intensive care. The progression downwards is going much slower than we thought though."

Image source, Getty Images

The teacher, whose wife also works in education, expects the transition to take "several months" and says officials are "more or less saying 2020 is going to be a write off".

Looking back on the past six weeks, he says: "I grew up during The Troubles and we've had ten times more deaths here in just one month. It's a crazy life. We never saw this coming, but we're educationalists doing our jobs online so that keeps us sane."

Stevie Higginson owns two restaurants which closed on 16 March; he has 45 to 50 staff and a wage bill of £11,500 per week.

He tells Good Morning Ulster that if the government "does not get money to the right people very quickly there'll be a lot of businesses won't make it through this".

He said he had received one £10,000 grant so far: "In six weeks I need 70, 80 grand just to pay staff. That's not counting any other suppliers that need paid and the landlord's still demanding rent."

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Higginson said he was lucky that his was a "well-established business" but that it was "so hard" for others not in that position.

"The furlough system should have happened way sooner, there's no excuse for this to take so long," he adds. "You can't expect small businesses to pay for their staff for that length of time.

"They've promised a system and they haven't delivered on it as yet and we're all footing the cost for it at the minute."

John Campbell
BBC News NI Economics and Business Editor

Image source, Getty Images

The Northern Ireland economy is enduring its "fastest and deepest" decline ever, Ulster Bank’s chief economist says.

Richard Ramsey’s comments came as the bank’s monthly survey showed the steepest ever fall in activity.

Since 2002, the bank has conducted a monthly survey of a representative sample of firms.

The March survey showed activity collapsing, with April likely to show an even worse result.

Read more here.

If you're wondering what you may have missed overnight, here's some of the latest developments:

• Ten more people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died in hospital in Northern Ireland, bringing the total number of hospital deaths to 134, with 1,967 confirmed cases.
• Thirty-two care homes in Northern Ireland have been affected by Covid-19 and figures for the number of deaths in non-hospital settings are to be released.
• All UK care home residents and staff with symptoms will be tested for coronavirus as laboratory capacity increases.
• Forty-one more people have died with coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland, bringing the total to 406.

• Fraudsters are targeting the vulnerable and self-isolating people, warns the National Crime Agency.

• A 99-year-old army veteran has raised more than £4m ($5m) to help the NHS.

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Stay with us throughout the day as we bring you live updates on the coronavirus outbreak in Northern Ireland as and when we have them.