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02nd Oct 2020

934 cases of Covid-19 reported in Northern Ireland in 24 hours

Conor Heneghan

Northern Ireland

The highest number of cases reported in a single day in Northern Ireland and more than double the previous high, which was reported on Wednesday.

A total of 934 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Northern Ireland on Friday, by far the highest number of cases reported in a single day to date. One further death related to Covid-19 was reported.

The number of cases reported by the Department of Health on Friday is more than double 424 cases reported on Wednesday, which had been the highest single-day number of cases to date.

Of the 12,886 cases of Covid-19 reported in Northern Ireland to date, 2,623 of them have been reported in the last week alone.

The highest number of cases was reported in the council area of Derry and Strabane (201), followed by Belfast (191) and Newry and Mourne (182).

The escalation in the number of cases in Northern Ireland has led the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Ian Young, to suggest that a series of “circuit breakers”, a term for a short-term lockdown, may be required over the foreseeable future to combat the spread of the virus.

Speaking on The Stephen Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster, Professor Young said: “I think that there are a number of interventions that the executive will be able to consider to reduce the number of cases and the impact of the epidemic as we go through what’s going to be a difficult six months.

“I think one of those options, and probably one of the most effective, is certainly this idea of a circuit breaker or a relatively short-term lockdown.

“I don’t think that a single period of lockdown or circuit breaker would be sufficient to get us right through the winter.

“I think it would be sensible to plan for the possibility of one or more period of circuit break over the course of this winter.”

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