COVID-19 UPDATE - No further deaths, 639 new cases

A further 639 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health said.

No further deaths of patients who had previously tested positive for the virus have been notified.

On Monday morning there were 208 Covid-19 positive patients in hospital, with 25 in intensive care.

In total, 2, 208,466 vaccines have been administered.

NI #COVID19 data has been updated:

📊639 positive cases and no deaths have been reported in past 24 hours.
💉2,208,466 vaccines administered in total.

Dashboard➡️https://t.co/YN16dmGzhv
Vaccines➡️https://t.co/Yfa0hHVmRL pic.twitter.com/jB843FzOLN

— Department of Health (@healthdpt) July 26, 2021

Northern Ireland’s chief nursing officer Charlotte McArdle has said the Belfast health trust is opening up additional ICU beds to cope with a surge in Covid-19 admissions.

The beds for Belfast trust patients are being made available at Belfast City Hospital due to capacity issues at the Royal Victoria and Mater hospitals.

Ms McArdle said there was currently no plan to reopen Northern Ireland’s region-wide Nightingale facility at the City Hospital but she warned that would become a “very real possibility” if the surge continues.

The senior nurse said there were 15 new ICU patients admitted in Northern Ireland over the week.

“The Belfast trust are planning to open additional Covid ICU beds in the BCH on the ground floor which would be for Belfast patients,” she told BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show.

“We haven’t yet made a decision to reopen regional Nightingale, but if this pressure continues that’s a very real possibility and, of course, that comes with complications and other decisions that need to be made around the balance in keeping surgery going.”

She said all five health trusts in Northern Ireland were under increasing pressures.

“All our trusts are having extreme difficulties coping, the health and social care system across all our trusts are struggling to cope with the current levels of demand for care,” she said.

“It’s impacting on the emergency departments, on GP services, on the ambulance service, and in all areas really. The five trusts today are in extreme escalation and at the moment across the five trusts there are 190 people waiting more than 12 hours for hospital admission.”