The number of Covid-19 inpatients at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) has risen by four in the last 24 hours according to the daily update from the Department of Health.

Yesterday there were 10 Covid inpatients at the hospital but this has risen to 14. One Covid patient is currently in ICU at SWAH.

The increase comes as eight Covid related deaths across Northern Ireland were reported by the department bringing the total to 688. None of these were reported in the Fermanagh and Omagh Council area.

40 positive cases were recorded in the Council area, where the total now stands at 1,391.

Breaking down positive cases by postcode in Fermanagh, from October 19-25, there were 21 cases in BT93; 47 cases in BT92; 37 positive cases in BT94; and 47 cases in BT74. 

There have been 277 positive cases in the Council area. Some 46 of those were aged 19 and under; 81 were aged between 20 and 39; 92 were aged between 40 and 59; 43 were aged between 60 and 79, and 15 were aged 80 and over.

The seven-day incident rate for positive cases per 100k people in Fermanagh and Omagh now stands at 237.1 per 100k, for the week of October 15-21 – the previous week’s rate stood at 238.

Across Northern Ireland, there were 822 positive cases reported in the period, with the total number now standing at 37,216; 5,947 of those were reported in the past seven days.

There are currently 74 in-patients across the Western Trust, while there have been 58 admissions and 67 discharges in the past seven days in Western Trust hospitals.

Across the five Trusts, there are 361 in-patients in hospital with the virus. Some 44 people are on Covid ICU beds across Northern Ireland. There are 39 Covid-19 patients on ventilators across Northern Ireland.

As of Thursday's update SWAH was bed occupancy capacity was beyond 100 per cent. 

There are currently 105 confirmed nursing home outbreaks, with 12 suspected care home outbreaks across Northern Ireland.