Covid-19: Number of school outbreaks more than doubles, report shows

The number of Covid-19 outbreaks recorded increased last week, mainly due to a rise in school clusters, according to the latest Health Service Executive update.

There were 169 outbreaks across various settings, up from 135 and 107 in the two previous weeks, the regular report from the HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) shows.

The number of school outbreaks more than doubled, from 17 to 40, as the autumn return to the classroom was completed.

The rise, which was expected, may relate to an increase in the ascertainment of cases since schools returned, public health officials have suggested.

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There was a slight drop in hospital outbreaks, from 11 to 10, with a total of 30 related cases reported last week. Two further outbreaks in community hospital/long-term care facilities were reported.

The number of nursing home outbreaks was down by six on the previous week to four, while workplace outbreaks dropped sharply from 21 to 14. The nursing home outbreaks comprised a total of 51 cases.

An outbreak or cluster involves two or more linked confirmed cases.

In workplaces, no outbreaks occurred in meat processing, three in other food production, two in construction and five in “other” locations.

Childcare outbreaks were also slightly down, from 23 to 22, with a total of 80 cases reported. Three outbreaks were linked to third-level colleges.

No travel-related outbreaks were reported.

Among vulnerable groups, there were 10 outbreaks in the Traveller community, up from five the previous week, two Roma cases and two in mental health units.

Other outbreaks were linked to retail (eight), hotels (three), restaurants/cafes (three) and pubs (five).

Since the start of the current wave, there have been 1,640 outbreaks with a total of 7,963 confirmed cases, according to the HPSC.