Covid-19: Nisra records drop in virus-related deaths

The number of death certificates mentioning Covid-19 has decreased since last week

There has been a fall in the number of Covid-19-related deaths registered in Northern Ireland.

The government statistics agency, Nisra, said in the week up to 17 December, the virus was mentioned on the death certificates of 35 people - four fewer than the previous week.

It brings the total number of deaths registered by the agency to 3,988.

The Department of Health's total up to last Thursday, based on a positive test being recorded, was 2,936.

Nisra's figures are higher, because it records mentions of the virus on death certificates, where it may or may not have been confirmed by way of a test.

Of the agency's measure, more than two-thirds of Covid-19-related deaths have occurred in hospital (69.6%).

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There have been 866 care home resident deaths, accounting for 21.7% of all Covid-19-related deaths.

People aged 75 and over accounted for 73.6% of the 3,969 Covid‑19 related deaths registered between 19 March 2020 and 17 December 2021.

The provisional number of deaths from all causes registered in the week ending 17 December was 363, a decrease of five from the previous week.

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon and Mid Ulster council areas have had higher proportions of Covid-19-related deaths (12.4% and 8.2% respectively) compared with their share of all deaths in Northern Ireland (10.4% and 6.6% respectively), according to the Nisra figures.

The statistics also show Ards and North Down and Fermanagh and Omagh council areas both have relatively low shares of registered Covid-19-related deaths (both 2.2 percentage points lower respectively than their share of all deaths).