Number of Covid outbreaks in primary schools almost doubles

The number of Covid-19 outbreaks in primary schools almost doubled last week, according to the latest data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).

However, the incidence of Covid cases among children aged five to 12 also dropped by more than a fifth on the previous week. It is still the age group with by far the highest number of cases at 1,048 per 100,000, according to data for the week up to Sunday.

The data shows there were 164 outbreaks overall in the week ended December 11th, which represented an increase of 25 – or 18 per cent – on the previous week.

The setting where the most outbreaks occurred was schools, where there were 37. That figure was up from 30 the week before. Primary schools were the worst hit where there 22 outbreaks, which was up from 12 the week before.

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In total 733 outbreaks associated with schoolchildren, universities, colleges, third-level students and childcare facilities have been notified since June 27th, and 243 of these outbreaks remain open.

Residential institutions continued to be badly affected last week as a further 29 outbreaks were notified, which was up slightly from 26 the week before.

There was better news in acute hospitals where the number of outbreaks was halved from 10 to five, although nursing homes saw a moderate increase from 10 to 13 outbreaks.

There were five community hospital/long-stay unit outbreaks notified, which was unchanged from the week before, while there were 12 outbreaks associated with other healthcare services. That figure was up from 10 the week before.

Workplaces

The rate of outbreak in childcare facilities increased slightly to nine last week following eight the week before. There were three outbreaks associated with workplaces, which was down from seven the week before.

There was one outbreak associated with a religious/other ceremony, which included one confirmed case of the Omicron variant. The remaining 50 outbreaks included private houses (38), extended family (8), travel (2), social gathering (1) and other (1).

The HPSC also reports on outbreaks among vulnerable populations, and last week saw an almost fourfold increase in this area with 26 new outbreaks reported, which was up from seven the week before.

There were 13 outbreaks among Travellers, which was up from three the week before, while there were seven outbreaks related to direct provision centres as against four the week before.

There were three outbreaks amongst the Roma community; two outbreaks associated with prisons; and one outbreak associated with the homeless.