ANOTHER 16 people in Northern Ireland have died after losing their battle against Covid-19.
Figures from the Department of Health last night also confirmed 759 new cases of the virus, bringing the total number since the outbreak began to 89,459.
The death toll stands at 1,476.
There were 736 Covid patients in hospitals across the north last night, with 52 in intensive care and 37 requiring ventilation. Covid intensive care units were 85 per cent full.
A total of 150 care homes are also dealing with outbreaks of the virus.
First Minister Arlene Foster last night said the latest modelling showed that the R-number in Northern Ireland is sitting at about 1.1 to 1.2 - a drop from an estimated 1.8 earlier in January.
Mrs Foster said things were "moving in the right direction" with a reduction in the number of positive cases. But she said everyone needed to "ready themselves" for strain on the health service in the next few weeks.
It comes as figures reveal that the Republic has the world's highest number of confirmed new Covid-19 cases per million people.
The statistics, released by Johns Hopkins University in the US, show there were 10,100 confirmed cases of coronavirus per million people.
In the Republic, eight more people died with Covid-19 with another 4,929 positive cases confirmed.
A total of 146 people were in intensive care in hospital yesterday - an increase of 21 patients.
Professor Philip Nolan of the National Public Health Emergency Team said the figures were "unprecedented", but it looked like they were beginning to turn a corner and the positivity rate of tests had fallen in recent days.
"We are beginning to see early signs of improvement in the situation but that improvement is from such a high level of disease that our health services remain very much under strain and under threat and will be so for a number of weeks," he said.
The Republic's rate of Covid-19 has rocketed in recent weeks, which has been blamed on the lifting of restrictions over the Christmas period and the prevalence of the highly transmissible UK variant of the virus.
Taoiseach Mícheál Martin rejected claims his government had given mixed messages by opening up parts of the economy before Christmas.
Mr Martin told Newstalk that he believes the government has "always responded effectively to the latest wave and to the latest surge of this particular virus".
He also said the Irish government "never contemplated" sealing the border with Northern Ireland as a way to restrict the growth of the virus and that such a prospect never seemed "realistic" to him.
