NORTHERN IRELAND HAS now gone over two weeks without a Covid-19 death.

NI’s Department of Health has said that no new deaths from the Coronavirus have been recorded today, with the total number of fatalities remaining at 556

That figure has remained static since 12 July, with the department saying there are currently two Covid-19 patients in ICU.

Four people have tested positive for Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, with 56 positive tests over the past seven days. There have been a total number of 4,918 cases in Northern Ireland.

The low numbers come as the UK as a whole introduced new measures over the weekend that removed Spain as one of the countries travellers could return from without quarantining.

The decision was announced on Saturday and came into force less than five hours later, it meant that people returning to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from Spain will have to quarantine for 14 days.

Some holidaymakers expressed frustration at a lack of warning from government.

On Friday it was revealed that Stormont’s health minister had asked his cross-border counterpart to consider new laws and data-sharing agreements to help track international travellers arriving on the island.

Robin Swann wrote Stephen Donnelly expressing concern about the “inability” of both jurisdictions to capture and share information about passengers transiting through one part of the island to the other.

In the letter, a leaked copy of which has been seen by the PA news agency, Swann told Donnelly that his officials were facing “serious impediments” in monitoring travellers who cross the border having landed in the Republic of Ireland from an at-risk country.

- With reporting by Press Association