There are 72 new cases of COVID-19 in Northern Ireland.
That’s according to figures just released.
No deaths have been reported.
It comes as schools are re-opening this week.
Meanwhile, a primary school in south Belfast has sent a class bubble home to self isolate for 14 days after a case of the coronavirus was detected.
Cairnshill Primary School said an ‘enhanced clean’ will be carried out in the affected area. However, classes will resume for the rest of the school.
A statement from the Chief Medical Officers and Deputy Chief Medical Officers of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales read: We are confident in the extensive evidence that there is an exceptionally small risk of children of primary or secondary school age dying from COVID-19. The infection fatality rate (proportion of those who are infected who die) for those aged 5 to 14 is estimated at 14 per million, lower than for most seasonal flu infections. Every death of a child is a tragedy but COVID-19 deaths in children and teenagers are fortunately extremely rare and almost all deaths are in children with significant pre-existing health conditions.
We are confident that there is clear evidence of a very low rate of severe disease in children of primary and secondary school ages compared to adults, even if they catch COVID-19. The percentage of symptomatic cases requiring hospitalisation is estimated to be 0.1% for children aged 0 to 9 and 0.3% among those aged 10 to 19, compared to a hospitalisation rate of over 4% in the UK for the general population. Most of these children make a rapid recovery.