Northern Ireland's health chiefs have warned that the number of people with Covid-19 in hospital could double by the third week of January compared to the current figures.
The prediction was made in a joint statement by the chief executives of the region's six health and social care trusts. Dr Anne Kilgallen, chief executive of Western Trust, said Northern Ireland hospitals are facing into an abyss.
She said: "We can say that this situation is more grave than it has ever been in the course of this pandemic. I would go so far as to say our hospitals are facing into an abyss. "At the moment one in four of the people in our hospitals have Covid-19.