No New Coronavirus Hospital Deaths In Northern Ireland As UK Figure Rises By 134

It is the first time the Northern Ireland figure has dropped to 0 since March 23.
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Northern Ireland has reported no new coronavirus-linked hospital deaths in 24 hours – for the first time since March 23.

It comes as the number of people who have died across the UK after contracting coronavirus has risen by 134 in 24 hours.

That includes deaths in care homes and the community as well as in hospital.

It comes after the two lowest daily totals since March 23 – 121 on Sunday and 118 on Monday – were reported over the bank holiday weekend.

The low figures, including Northern Ireland’s total, may be in part due to delays in recording data over the long weekend. It means May 25 could eventually end up with a small number of Northern Irish deaths recorded after all – though this is not certain.

Deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill tweeted: “Let’s keep working together to have more days like this. This battle is not over and we cannot afford for a single person to become complacent to the threat posed by this deadly virus.”

Meanwhile, 109,979 tests were carried out in the 24 hours up to 9am. Boris Johnson said earlier this month he was aiming to hit the 200,000 tests a day mark by June – which is six days away. Today’s tally is in fact more than 11,000 below the 122,000 the government managed at the end of April.

There were 2,004 positive test results, taking the total since the outbreak hit UK shores to 265,227.

Editor’s note: This article originally stated there had been an increase of 142 UK deaths. This number was taken from individual reporting by England, Scotland and Wales’ public health authorities, but is superseded by the UK-wide figure that is calculated using slightly different criteria by the government.