Coronavirus: Seven deaths and 863 further cases in Northern Ireland

Seven further deaths and another 863 positive cases of Covid-19 have been reported by the Department of Health.

The latest deaths bring the toll in Northern Ireland to 598.

Some 6,286 new positive cases of the virus have been detected in the last seven days, bringing the total number of cases in the region to 21,898.

There are currently 150 patients in hospitals with Covid-19, including 23 in intensive care.

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Four deaths happened in the past 24 hours, with three other occurring earlier but only now being reported  

Derry City and Strabane Council area remains the worst hit in Northern Ireland, with a case incidence rate of 970 per 100,000 people over the last seven days.

That is more than double the next highest rate, which is 462 per 100,000 in Belfast.

Derry City and Strabane Council area's figure is also above the rate for Nottingham, the highest in England, which currently stands at 880.4 cases per 100,000. Glasgow continues to have the highest rate in Scotland, at 268.8 cases per 100,000, while Merthyr Tydfil continues to have the highest rate in Wales, at 207.2 cases per 100,000.

All figures are based on data published this afternoon and are for the seven days to October 10.

Data on new cases for October 11-13 is incomplete and therefore not included.

Mid Ulster now has a rate of 401, while the Newry, Mourne and Down Council area has a prevalence of 315 per 100,000.

Mid and East Antrim remains the areas with the lowest infection rate, at 95 per 100,000.

The Belfast Trust sent a memo to staff confirming they need to open up ICU beds in the Nightingale facility at Belfast City Hospital due to the number of Covid patients on ventilators at the Mater hospital. The Mater can care for 11, they currently have 10.

Covid-19 infection rates will keep rising if schools and the hospitality sector remain open, a paper from the health minister has warned.

Health officials suggested measures should last between four to six weeks to have the greatest effect.

Advice from health and scientific experts has been submitted by Robin Swann for Stormont ministers to consider.

The executive will meet later, amid pressure to impose new restrictions.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that there will be many more deaths if further restrictions are not taken in some areas now.

“If we don’t have the virus under control, even with the better survival rates that we now have thanks to both drug discoveries by British science and improvements in clinical practice, those figures will multiply.

“And in addition, then, harder economic measures would inevitably be needed to get it under control and needed for longer.

“And if you, like me, want our economy back on full throttle then we need to keep this virus in check.”

Mr Hancock said that we should have no confidence of ever reaching herd immunity, even if everyone was to catch the virus.

The Health Secretary told the Commons: “Some have set out this more relaxed approach, including in the so-called Great Barrington Declaration, and I want to take this argument head on because on the substance, the Great Barrington Declaration is underpinned by two central claims and both are emphatically false.

“First, it says that if enough people get Covid, we will reach herd immunity. This is not true. Many infectious diseases never reach herd immunity, like measles and malaria and Aids and flu, and with increasing evidence of reinfection, we should have no confidence that we would ever reach herd immunity to Covid even if everyone caught it.

“Herd immunity is a flawed goal without a vaccine, even if we could get to it, which we can’t. The second central claim is that we can segregate the old and the vulnerable on our way to herd immunity. This is simply not possible.”