Covid-19 patient admissions to the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) have increased again despite a fall in the number of positve cases in the last 24 hours in Fermanagh and Omagh.

The daily update from the Department of Health on Thursday. October 29 reported 40 new cases in the area compared to 20 positive cases reported today, Friday, October 30. This was the lowest figure across all council areas along with Antrim and Newtownabbey.The total now stand at 1,411.

However, admissions to SWAH have risen by two from Thursday's report with there now being 16 Covid-19 patients in the hospital with one ICU bed Covid occupied.

Across Northern Ireland there were nine further deaths, bringing the total figure to 598 while 566 people tested positive for the virus with some 37,782 people now having tested positive across the country. 5,424 of those were in the last seven days.

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 235 positive cases in the Council area. Some 41 of those were aged 19 and under; 64 were aged between 20 and 39; 78 were aged between 40 and 59; 37 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 201.1 per 100k, for the week of October 15-21 – the previous week’s rate stood at 255.1.

There are currently 81 in-patients across the Western Trust, while there have been 57 admissions and 56 discharges in the past seven days in Western Trust hospitals.

Across the five Trusts, there are 354 in-patients in hospital with the virus. Some 43 people are on Covid ICU beds across Northern Ireland. There are 38 Covid-19 patients on ventilators across Northern Ireland.

Friday's update shows the SWAH's bed occupancy capacity was beyond 100 per cent. 

There are currently 109 confirmed nursing home outbreaks, with 12 suspected care home outbreaks across Northern Ireland.