Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
53% of deaths care residents
Nisra reveals overall fatalities at 716 504 Swann warns Covid-19 ‘still very real threat’
CARE home residents have accounted for more than half of Covid-19 deaths in Northern Ireland, it has been revealed.
Yesterday’s figures also show 62 people who died in hospital had been living in residential facilities.
It means the number of deaths of care home residents due to coronavirus up until May 22 is 380, or 53.1% of the overall total.
Under the previous reporting regime (where deaths were designated as hospital or care home) 318, or 44.4%, would have been labelled as care home.
But the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency’s
“new analysis” details “deaths of care home residents in hospital”.
Its bulletin also showed 47 deaths involving Covid-19 occurred in the last week, from May 16 to May 22, bringing the latest total to 716.
Nisra said 353 (49.3%) took place in hospital, 318 (44.4%) in care homes, eight (1.1%) in hospices and 37 (5.2%) at residential addresses or other locations.
The agency added the 326 fatalities which occurred in care homes and hospices involved 76 separate establishments. Nisra said: “The comparative number of deaths reported daily by the Department of Health to 22nd May was 504.
“These figures are based on patients having previously tested positive for the virus, whereas NISRA figures are based on the information entered on death certificates, completed by medical professionals. They may or may not have previously tested positive for the virus.”
This means there are 212 previously unreported fatalities that have now been made public.
A large number of “excess deaths’ can also be revealed.
Nisra said: “Separate analyses based on the
Number of Covid-19 deaths recorded by Health Department
date of death registration, shows that the provisional number of total deaths registered in Northern Ireland in the week ending 22nd May 2020 (week 20) was 325, 71 fewer than in week 19 and 35 more than the five-year average of 290.
“Over the last eight weeks in total, 902 ‘excess deaths’ (deaths above the average for the corresponding period in previous years) have been registered in Northern Ireland, with the number of ‘excess deaths’ in the year to date to 22nd May totalling 643.”
The agency said Covid-19 “was mentioned on the death certificate for 53 (16.3%) of the 325 deaths registered in week 20, the fourth consecutive weekly fall in the number of registered Covid-19 related deaths and bringing the total number of Covid-19 related deaths registered in the calendar year 2020 to 705”.
It added: “Persons aged 75 and over accounted for two-thirds (66.7%) of all deaths and 79.4% of Covid-19-related deaths registered this calendar year up to 22nd May.
“For Covid-19 related deaths, those with an address in Belfast Local Government District accounted for 209 (29.6%) of the 705 deaths.”
Yesterday’s latest publication from the Department of Health said three more people, who had tested positive for coronavirus, had died.
Reacting to the news, Health Minister Robin Swann warned “while the death rate in NI continues to decrease, Covid-19 is still a very real threat”.
He added: “Everyone must keep following public health advice on social distancing and hand washing.
“I welcome the fact that Nisra’s weekly bulletin now contains a more detailed breakdown of information in relation to deaths of care homes residents. “I have been in correspondence with Nisra in recent weeks and asked specifically for this additional information to be included in the bulletin in the interests of greater transparency.
“My department’s daily statistical dashboard also now includes more information in respect of care homes.”
The department also revealed a further 17 confirmed cases of the virus, bringing that total in Northern Ireland to 4,696.