Weekly Deaths Bulletin – week ending 30 April 2021

Date published: 07 May 2021

Topics: Cause of Death, Covid-19 related deaths, Death Statistics, Weekly death registrations in Northern Ireland

The bulletin containing data on deaths registered for the week ending 30 April 2021 was released at 9.30am today.

Key Points

The provisional number of total deaths registered in Northern Ireland in the week ending 30 April 2021 (week 17) was 291, 14 less than the previous week (305) and 51 less than the 2016-2020 5 year average (342).
Eight deaths mentioning Covid-19 on the death certificate were registered in week 17 of 2021, accounting for 2.7% of all deaths registered in that week and bringing the total number of Covid-19 related deaths registered from the start of the pandemic to 2,957 by 30 April 2021.
From the start of the pandemic (from the first Covid-19 related death being registered on 19 March 2020) to 30 April 2021, males and females accounted for equal proportions of all deaths registered (males: 50.0%, females: 50.0%) and similar proportion of Covid-19 related deaths registered (males: 51.3%; female 48.7%).
Over the year to 30 April 2021, the 75 years and over age-group accounted for almost two-thirds (65.3%) of all deaths and over three-quarters (76.1%) 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 (12.1% and 8.4% respectively) compared with their share of all deaths in Northern Ireland (10.3% and 6.5% respectively).

2,958 deaths mentioning Covid-19 on the death certificate have occurred in total from 18 March 2020 to 30 April 2021 (including those registered up to and including 5 May). The comparative number of deaths reported by the Department of Health (DoH) to 30 April was 2,145 (see page 16 of the bulletin for definitions).
Three Covid-19 related deaths occurred in week ending 30 April, a decrease of five deaths from the previous week and continuing the general downward trend since the peak of 178 Covid-19 related deaths in the week ending 15 January.
Of these 2,958 deaths involving Covid-19, 1,956 (66.1%) occurred in hospital, 772 (26.1%) occurred in care homes, 14 (0.5%) occurred in hospices and 216 (7.3%) occurred at residential addresses or another location.
The 786 deaths in care homes and hospices involved 177 separate establishments.
The current lockdown, which has been in place since the end of 2020, began to ease on 23 April 2021 with close contact services opening. This was followed by the opening of outdoor hospitality businesses on 30 April.

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

If you would like to receive alerts about Vital Statistics releases, please email demography@nisra.gov.uk