Weekly fatalities are down from 61 a month ago to 15

FRIDAY’S Covid related deaths bulletin for March 13 to 19 says 15 people have passed away due to the virus – a significant fall from previous weeks. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency believe the figure “may have been impacted” due to registration offices being closed for St Patrick’s Day. However, the number of deaths is still considerably lower than the pervious week when it was 30 and down substantially from one month ago on February 26 when the weekly figure was 61. On January 29 the number of deaths recorded in one week was 150.

NISRA says that the total number of deaths involving Covid-19 now stands at 2,893. They stated that of that total, 1,901 took place in hospital, 767 in care homes, 14 in hospices and 211 at residential addresses or other locations. The comparative number of deaths reported daily by the Department of Health to March 19, 2021 was 2,103. The Department figures are based on people who have previously tested postive for Covid, whereas the NISRA figures are based on death certificates “completed by medical professionals” where “Covid-19 was either a contributor to or the main cause of death”.

They add: “Further analysis, which includes deaths of care home residents in hospital, shows that of the 1,003 deaths of care home residents involving Covid-19 which occurred between March 18, 2020 and March 19, 2021, 76.5% occurred in a care home, with the remaining 236 occurring in hospital.

“On this basis, deaths of care home residents account for 34.7% of all Covid-19 related deaths, however, no assumptions can be made in relation to where or when the deceased contracted the disease.”

The Agency adds that separate analyses “based on the date of death registration”, shows that the provisional number of total deaths from all causes registered in Northern Ireland in the week ending March 19 was 253, 86 less than in week 10.

Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate of 15 of the 253 deaths registered in week 11, NISRA adds, a fall of 17 from the previous week’s 32 Covid-19 related deaths.

They said: “Persons aged 75 and over accounted for 76.5% of the 2,886 Covid-19 related deaths registered between March 19, 2020 and March

19, 2021.”