Coronavirus: 11 further deaths and 504 new cases recorded in North

A further 11 people with Covid-19 have died in Northern Ireland. Another 504 positive cases of the virus were also notified by the Department of Health on Wednesday. There are 701 Covid positive inpatients in hospital, 65 of whom are in intensive care.

Northern Ireland’s chief medical officer has said an “interim solution” has been agreed between authorities North and South to share information on international arrivals.

Dr Michael McBride told The Irish Times this involved text messages to individuals arriving in the Republic and travelling on to Northern Ireland.

Under this temporary solution, people arriving into the State with a final destination in the North who provide a telephone number will be contacted and advised of the need to self-isolate and to get in touch with the contact tracing service in Northern Ireland.

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“That’s a very useful first step,” said Dr McBride, “and that certainly is the interim arrangement until such times as we get all of the data agreements in place.

“There is a willingness to do this, sometimes things are much more complicated than you otherwise might think,” he said.

The Cabinet has been asked to sign-off on plans to ask people arriving in Northern Ireland to fill in passenger locator forms if they are travelling across the Border to the Republic.

Under the agreement, passenger information will be shared on both sides of the Border.

‘Sustained progress’

Dr McBride said the Government in the Republic would be capturing information for people travelling on to Northern Ireland.

“That information when the detail is worked through will be shared so that our contact tracing service can follow up with those individuals.” He said the agreement very much welcomed, and while it had been “slower than we would have liked” due to a range of issues around data sharing, “sustained progress” was being made.

At a media briefing on Tuesday Dr McBride also gave more details on the trajectory of Covid-19 infections in Northern Ireland.

While the number of new cases was falling and the number of new Covid positive hospital admissions had peaked, he said, hospitals were “continuing to see very high pressures on our respiratory wards and intensive care” and he estimated it was “likely to be later in March before we see those pressures begin to ease.”

He said the new, more virulent strain of the virus which originated in Kent now accounted for approximately two-thirds of infections in the North at present.

“It is now the dominant strain in the Republic of Ireland and will become the dominant strain in Northern Ireland,” he said.