Covid-19: NI daily cases currently 'as high as 20,000'
- Published
Daily Covid-19 cases in Northern Ireland could currently be as high as 20,000.
Testing for the virus has reduced dramatically, meaning official statistics are not revealing the true extent of the problem.
The daily number of positive cases is about 2,500, according to Department of Health figures.
But according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) that figure is actually between 15,000 and 20,000.
That means the Covid-19 impact on the community remains ferocious.
According to the latest modelling paper published by the Department of Health, "hospital admissions are fluctuating at a relatively high level" although "the total numbers of Covid-19 inpatients have fallen slightly in the last week".
The latest ONS survey reports that around 1 in 17 people in Northern Ireland had Covid-19 in the week up to 26 February.
So community transmission remains at a sustained and "very high level" and has been like this for five months.
Most infections in Northern Ireland are due to the BA.2 Omicron variant. BBC News NI understands that 80% of cases here are BA.2.
In the week commencing 21 February, 87% of samples were BA.2, which is higher than elsewhere in the UK.
Initial research shows that BA.2 is more transmissible than Omicron but no worse in severity.
ICU numbers low
While case numbers paint a negative story - elsewhere the narrative is slightly different.
One person is in intensive care in Northern Ireland with Covid-19 - the lowest figure in almost 10 months.
At the start of the year, more than 30 people were being treated in ICU - however to get to this point has been tediously slow.
People continue to die with the virus
Who are they?
If we look back at the numbers reported by the Department of Health from 1 March to Wednesday, there have been a total of 26 deaths who had tested positive for Covid-19.
Nineteen of these people were men, seven were women.
The age breakdown: 14 people were over 80 years of age; nine people were between 60 and 79; two were between 40 and 59, and one person died who was aged between 20 and 39.
Twenty three of these people died in hospital and three died in a care or residential home.
According to National Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) figures - of the 327 deaths registered in Northern Ireland at the week ending 25 February, 33 of these people had Covid.
So Covid contributed to more than 10% of deaths in that one week.
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