Weekly Deaths Bulletin – week ending 19 March 2021

Date published: 26 March 2021

The bulletin containing data on deaths registered for the week ending 19 March 2021 was released at 9.30am today.

Key Points  

Date of Registration

• The provisional number of total deaths registered in Northern Ireland in the week ending 19 March 2021 (week 11) was 253, 86 less than the previous week (339) and 34 less than the 5 year average (287).
• Fifteen deaths mentioning Covid-19 on the death certificate were registered in week 11 of 2021, accounting for 5.9% of all deaths in that week and bringing the total number of Covid-19 related deaths registered from the start of the pandemic to 2,886 by 19 March 2021.
• From the start of the pandemic (from the first Covid-19 related death being registered on 19^th March 2020) to 19 March 2021, males and females accounted for similar proportions of all deaths registered (males: 49.9%, females: 50.1%) and Covid-19 related deaths registered (males: 51.0%; female 49.0%).
• From 19 March 2020 (the start of the pandemic) to 19 March 2021, the 75 years and over age-group accounted for almost two-thirds (65.6%) of all deaths and over three-quarters (76.5%) of Covid-19 related deaths.
• Over the period of the pandemic, Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon and Mid-Ulster Local Government Districts have had higher proportions of Covid-19 related deaths (12.2% and 8.2% respectively) compared with their share of all deaths in Northern Ireland (10.5% and 6.5% respectively).

Covid-19 deaths based on date of death

• 2,893 deaths mentioning Covid-19 on the death certificate have occurred in total from 18 March 2020 to 19 March 2021 (including those registered up to and including 24 March). The comparative number of deaths reported by the Department of Health (DoH) to 19 March was 2,103 (see page 16 of the bulletin for definitions).
• 15 Covid-19 related deaths occurred in week ending 19 March, down from 31 in the previous week. The previous week was the first rise in the occurrence based series after seven consecutive weeks of decline since the peak of 178 Covid-19 related deaths in the week ending 15 January.
• Of these 2,893 deaths involving Covid-19, 1,901 (65.7%) occurred in hospital, 767 (26.5%) occurred in care homes, 14 (0.5%) occurred in hospices and 211 (7.3%) occurred at residential addresses or another location.
• The 781 deaths in care homes and hospices involved 177 separate establishments.

A weekly deaths dashboard is also available.

The bulletin and other related documents are available from the latest weekly deaths bulletin webpage

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