Two patients who were being treated in a hospital ward in Co Armagh that is at the centre of a coronavirus cluster have died in the last 48 hours.
The patients, who both tested positive for Covid-19, were receiving treatment in the haematology ward at Craigavon Area Hospital, the Southern Health and Social Care Trust confirmed on Friday.
A third patient who had Covid-19 who had been treated on the ward has also died, after being discharged, but the disease was not the primary cause of death, the trust said.
A review is under way to investigate how the novel coronavirus got into the hospital.
The North's Minister for Health, Robin Swann, described the deaths as "extremely distressing and disturbing", while the trust said it was "profoundly sorry" and extended its "deepest sympathies to the family and friends of those who have passed away".
Northern Ireland reported one more coronavirus-related death on Friday, bringing the total number of fatalities related to Covid-19 recorded by the North's Department of Health (DoH) to 564. Two such deaths were recorded on Thursday.
The daughter of one of the patients who died at Craigavon Area Hospital told the BBC her father had been suffering from bone cancer but had been given a life expectancy of up to 10 years.
Yvonne Fleming said her father John "fought really strong and hard, he gave it everything, but when I went in to see him he said, 'I didn't bargain for this, I don't want to die, I'm afraid of dying. It's not the cancer that's killing me, it's Covid.'"
She said her father had asked her to tell his story to help other families. “What I would like to know and what my mother would like to know is how the virus got through the hospital’s defences into his ward. We can’t get our head round it.”
‘Detailed investigation’
Responding to the comments, Southern Trust medical director Dr Maria O’Kane said she could “completely understand what her concern is in relation to this, I can’t say it strongly enough, we are extremely sorry that this has happened”.
“The Southern Trust has made clear that a detailed investigation is ongoing following the clusters at the [Craigavon] hospital,” Mr Swann said. “This situation demands a thorough and expeditious investigation.”
He said patients and bereaved families were “entitled to answers” and he would “continue to closely monitor the management of these clusters”.
A total of 14 patients in Craigavon hospital’s haematology ward have tested positive for coronavirus in the ward’s cluster, as well as 17 members of staff, who are off work and currently self-isolating, as are an additional 42 staff members who have been identified as potential contacts. The ward is closed to new admissions.
Clusters have also been identified in other areas in the hospital. The trust said two members of staff and one patient have tested positive for Covid-19 in Ward 3 South, and 14 members of staff are self-isolating as a result. Cases had previously been identified in the hospital’s emergency department, but the trust said on Friday that this department was operating as normal.
New cases
According to the daily coronavirus bulletin released by the DoH on Friday, a total of 61 new cases of Covid-19 were identified in the North in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases recorded by the DoH since the start of the pandemic now stands at 7,503.
There have been 439 additional cases in the North in the past seven days, with almost 90 per cent of those in people under 60.
Many of these cases involved people in the 20-39 age category, where 186 cases were confirmed in the past week, while 111 of the cases were in people aged between 40-59 and 90 in those aged 19 and under.
The North's chief scientific officer, Prof Ian Young, told the BBC this was because younger people – particularly those under 35 – were limiting their social contact much less than those in the older age groups.
However, the number of hospital admissions with the disease remains relatively low, as younger people are less likely to require hospital treatment, he said.
There are currently 17 people with coronavirus in hospital in the North, with three in intensive care.
The greatest number of new cases is in Belfast, where 147 people tested positive for the virus in the past seven days.
Fines
Meanwhile, two people in the North were this week fined £1,000 each for failing to follow the requirement to self-isolate for 14 days after returning following international travel to certain countries.
In total, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has issued 497 fines for breaches of coronavirus regulations since March 30th.
Separate figures released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) earlier on Friday recorded two coronavirus-related deaths in the week ending August 28th.
The total number of coronavirus-related fatalities in the North recorded by Nisra since the beginning of the outbreak there stands at 873 until August 28th, more than 300 more than the figure recorded by the DoH for the same period.
Northern Ireland produces two sets of data on coronavirus-related deaths. The DoH’s figures are based on patients who previously tested positive for Covid-19. The Nisra figures are based on information entered on death certificates by medical professionals, and include deaths where there may or may not have been a previous positive test for coronavirus.
Of the 873 fatalities recorded by Nisra, 462 (52.9 per cent) occurred in hospital, 351 (40.2 per cent) in care homes and eight (0.9 per cent) in hospices.
The 359 deaths in care homes and hospices involved 81 separate establishments, according to Nisra.
