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The number of people attending emergency departments (EDs) in NI dropped by almost a third in the first few weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figures released by the Department of Health (DoH) cover the first three months of 2020.

There were almost 50,000 attendances at EDs in March this year, a drop of 22,000 (31%) on March 2019.

The figures do not cover April and May, when Covid-19 and lockdown continued.

'Dropped significantly'

More than 80% of those attendances were what are known as "Type 1 EDs".

These are the best-equipped EDs, which provide emergency medicine and surgery, 24-hours-a -day, with consultants on hand.

There had been concern that some patients requiring hospital treatment were staying away, with Health Minister Robin Swann saying it was well known that attendances at EDs "had dropped significantly" during the lockdown period.

However, Mr Swann said that numbers had "started to climb significantly in recent weeks".

"On one level, this is clearly welcome as it means people who need urgent or emergency care are not staying away from hospital" but "also points to serious challenges," Mr Swann said.

Prior to the pandemic, the minister said that people were experiencing "long waits to be seen in crowded emergency departments".

"Given the continuing need for social distancing, we cannot allow this to happen again," Mr Swann said.

He said that next week he intends to publish a detailed blueprint for the rebuilding of the health and social care system in Northern Ireland.