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

About two-thirds of Covid-19 related deaths have occurred in hospitals (69.9%)

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

The government statistics agency, Nisra, said in the week up to 4 February, the virus was mentioned on the death certificates of 30 people.

That is eight fewer than the previous week, bringing the agency's total number of deaths to 4,196.

The Department of Health's total, up to last Friday, based on a positive test being recorded, was 3,125.

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.

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Of the agency's measure, more than two-thirds of Covid-19-related deaths have occurred in hospital (69.9%).

There have been 1,183 care home resident deaths, accounting for less than a third (28.1%) of all Covid-19 related deaths.

People aged 75 and over accounted for 73.3% of the 4,196 Covid-19 related deaths registered between 19 March 2020 and 4 February 2022.

The provisional number of deaths from all causes registered in the week ending 4 February was 363.

That was 27 more than the previous week, and four less than the five-year average for the time of year of 367.

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, and Mid Ulster council areas have had higher proportions of Covid-19 related deaths (12.3% and 8.2% respectively) compared with their share of all deaths in Northern Ireland (10.4% and 6.7% respectively), according to the Nisra figures.

The figures also show that Ards and North Down and Fermanagh and Omagh council areas both have relatively low shares of registered Covid-19 related deaths, 2.1 and 2.0 percentage points lower respectively than their share of all deaths.