The coronavirus-linked death toll in the North has passed 2,000, the region’s statistics agency has said.
This comes as a further 26 deaths were recorded in the North on Friday.
A further 1,052 positive cases of the virus have also been notified, according to the Stormont Department of Health.
Data from Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) provides a broader picture of the impact of Covid-19 than the death toll reported by the department.
The department’s statistics focus primarily on hospital deaths and only include people who have tested positive for the virus.
Nisra obtains its data from death certificates in which Covid-19 is recorded as a factor by a medical professional, regardless of where the death took place. The person may or may not have tested positive for the virus.
While the departmental death toll stood at 1,533 on Thursday, Nisra has reported coronavirus as a factor in 2,019 deaths that occurred up to January 8th.
The statistics agency reports its Covid-19 data with a week lag.
It found that 103 Covid-19-linked deaths occurred in the week January 2nd-8th.
The comparative total number of deaths reported daily by the Department of Health stood at 1,438 on January 8th.
January peak
Nisra said January 7th also saw the joint highest number of deaths, 25, in one day during the pandemic. That toll was also recorded on April 9th and 22nd last year.
Of the 2,019 deaths recorded by Nisra by January 8th, 1,247 (62 per cent) occurred in hospital, 622 (31 per cent) in care homes, 12 (0.6 per cent) in hospices and 138 (7 per cent) at residential addresses or other locations.
The 634 deaths which occurred in care homes and hospices involved 149 separate establishments.
Nisra also provides an analysis around the total number of care home residents who have died, whether in their home or in hospital, having been transferred for treatment.
Up to January 8th, the deaths of 802 care home residents were linked to coronavirus, 180 of which occurred in hospital.
Care home residents make up about 40 per cent of all deaths linked to Covid-19 in Northern Ireland.
In the week January 2nd-8th, 145 coronavirus-linked deaths were officially registered in Northern Ireland, some of which occurred before that week as deaths can take a number of days to register.
While this was the highest number of deaths registered in one week since the outset of the pandemic, Nisra said delays in registering deaths due to the Christmas period may have been a factor in that.
