FIVE more care homes and hospices lost patients to Covid-19 according to detailed government statistics which reveal 192? more deaths in Northern Ireland than reported by the Department of Health.
The latest figures from the Northern Ireland Statistic and Research Agency (Nisra), which analyses all death certificates mentioning coronavirus, show 664 infected people had died by May 15.
The department's figure for that period was 472.
Almost half of all coronavirus-related deaths have happened in care homes, although the number of weekly fatalities fell for the second week in a row to 32 from 38 the previous week.
It is also the third consecutive weekly fall in the overall number of registered Covid-19 related deaths
There were 61 deaths involving Covid-19 recorded from May 9-15, with 27 occurred in hospital, 32 in care homes, one in a hospice and one at a residential address.
Hospitals have now see seen 322 deaths (48.5 per cent), with 303 (45.6 per cent) in care homes, six (0.9 per cent) in hospices and 33 (five per cent) at residential addresses or other locations.
The 309 deaths in care homes and hospices involved 76 separate establishments - five more than the week before.
The week saw 101 more deaths than the five-year average, and there have now been 867 `excess deaths' over the last seven weeks in Northern Ireland.
The department's figures are based on patients who tested positive for the virus, unlike Nisra's which are drawn from information entered on death certificates, completed by medics and include people who may not have previously tested positive.
Because the department figure relies on positive tests, it is mostly made up of those who have died in hospital. As testing increases in care homes and more generally it is expected that the figures will become more aligned,
Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate in 18.7 per cent of deaths registered that week in Northern Ireland - the third consecutive weekly fall.
Of coronavirus-related deaths, 79.3 per cent were people aged over 75 and 30.1 per cent were in the Belfast area.
The Public Health Agency (PHA) yesterday published a report examining key trends and characteristics of Covid-19, which Health Minister Robin Swann said will help develop our plans for the vital recovery period as we start to re-engage our health and social care services.
The data, which will be published monthly, will help "track and understand the virus and its impact both on the community and the health and social care system".
Professor Hugo Van Woerden of the PHA, said Northern Ireland is "now at a point where we can start to examine the particular ways it is affecting people living in Northern Ireland and our health service".
"In particular, we have been able to study the demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, geographical location and deprivation, of people affected by the virus."
The report reveals in the first 20 weeks of the pandemic there were 4,469 laboratory-confirmed cases of which 61 per cent were female and 28 per cent in Belfast.
Retrospective tests from 71 `flu spotter' programme swabs taken between December 27 and March 12 found none were positive - suggesting that the virus was not circulating undetected in Northern Ireland before the first case was confirmed.
More information: www.pha.site/cvstats
