Russ ;x Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 The first coronavirus-related death in Northern Ireland has been confirmed. The patient was male, elderly, had an underlying medical condition and was being treated in a hospital in the greater Belfast area. The patient was among the 77 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in Northern Ireland. On Thursday afternoon, Health Minister Robin Swann said that "in the worst case scenario", the death toll "could be in the region of 9,000". "The scale of the surge coming towards us is of biblical proportions," he said. "Our health service is already fast becoming unrecognisable before our very eyes." Outlining plans to deal with a surge, Mr Swann earlier said testing capacity would be expanded to about 800 Covid-19 tests per day. His department is considering bringing in private suppliers at the beginning of next week. Mr Swann announced that third-year nursing and midwifery students due to qualify within six months would be redeployed to clinical care duties. "This will happen within the next 14 days and will provide support of up to 800 senior nursing and midwifery students," he said. Meanwhile, about 230 final year medical students at Queen's University will join the medical register four months earlier than originally envisaged. Stressing the importance of "social responsibility" in terms of following government advice regarding precautions, Mr Swann said: "These aren't light requests, these are things that will pull down [the number of deaths] significantly." Mr Swann said "changes that would have seemed unthinkable weeks ago will become the new norm". "Decisions that would previously have taken months or even years will be taken in hours." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wissam. Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 8 Dead In Algeria 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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