A male aged 19 or under was among the nine people who died with Covid-19 in the North of Ireland in the past 24 hours.
According to the latest figures from the Department of Health, the death happened in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area.
It is the first Coronavirus-related death in the 0-19 age category in the North of Ireland.
Sadly, he was one of four people who lost their lives to Coronavirus within the council boundary in the last 24 hours.
There is no further information available from the department’s dashboard about the person who died.
His exact age or general state of health before contracting Covid-19 have not been made public.
All nine of the deaths reported on Wednesday happened in the past 24 hours.
They bring the total number of Coronavirus-related deaths recorded by the Department of Health to 680.
Another 840 cases of the virus have been confirmed, bringing the official total to 36,394.
The statistics show that hospitals are operating beyond capacity – at 103% occupancy across the entire Northern Ireland healthcare system.
That includes the total beds that are occupied and the additional beds that are needed for those awaiting admission.
So while some hospitals across the North of Ireland may have capacity, the overall number of people waiting for a bed in hospital, plus those already in hospital, may outweigh the number of beds technically available.
In the Derry City and Strabane District Council area, a total of 5,262 people have tested positive for Coronavirus in the past seven months.
In the past 24 hours, a further 106 people in Derry and Strabane have returned a positive test, a rise of 42 on the previous day.
Over the last week, 693 people within the council boundary have contracted the virus.
Six people have returned indeterminate test results.
The positive test rate in the council area is now at 3,492 per 100,000 of population, according to the new figures.
This is the highest of any of the 11 councils in the North of Ireland.
The Department of Health has recorded 45 deaths in hospitals in the Derry City and Strabane District Council since the pandemic broke out here in March.
A total of 100 care homes are dealing with outbreaks of the virus with 235 closed outbreaks of COVID-19 in care homes.
Tags: