Five new Covid-19 outbreaks linked to schools, data shows 

In the three weeks prior to these changes, 199 outbreaks in schools involving more than 900 cases were recorded by public health teams. File photo: Larry Cummins

Five new Covid-19 outbreaks were recorded in schools last week, involving 32 confirmed linked cases, new figures from the HSE's Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) show.

This compares to 11 the week prior, involving 90 confirmed linked cases, and 15 the week before, involving 80 linked cases. Towards the end of September, changes to the contact tracing policy stopped the testing and tracing of asymptomatic close contacts in children under the age of 12.

In the three weeks prior to these changes, 199 outbreaks in schools involving more than 900 cases were recorded by public health teams. In the five weeks since, 43 outbreaks in schools have been reported involving more than 262 cases. 

The HPSC figures published on Wednesday show that one outbreak was reported in childcare facilities last week, involving two confirmed linked cases.

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Eight outbreaks related to retail outlets were reported, involving 25 confirmed linked cases. A further four new public house-associated outbreaks were also reported, involving 11 confirmed linked cases.

There were four new hotel-associated outbreaks, with 16 confirmed linked cases, and three new travel-related outbreaks with 19 confirmed linked cases from Lisbon, Alicante and Malaga.

Six new nursing home outbreaks were reported, involving 15 confirmed linked cases. One new outbreak was also reported in either a community hospital or long-term care facility, and there were six new acute hospital outbreaks.

There were also seven new residential institution outbreaks reported, involving 31 linked cases. Six of these outbreaks were in centres for disabilities and one was in a children’s residential centre.

Eighteen workplace outbreaks were reported, involving 58 confirmed linked cases. This included two in food production and processing and two in construction.

Separately, there are 10 counties where more than 10% of the population are not yet fully vaccinated. Just three counties boast a vaccination rate above 95% among eligible people.

Figures up to the start of last week show Waterford has the highest uptake rate with 96.6% of over 12s fully vaccinated.

Other counties topping the list include Carlow with 96.4% and Wexford with 95% while Wicklow, Tipperary and Sligo all have 94% of their population fully vaccinated.

The HSE figures, released to Newstalk, show that Monaghan has the lowest uptake rate at 80.9% followed by Donegal on 81.3% and Laois on 84.7%. Those three counties are also at the bottom of the table when it comes to first doses. 

In five other counties - Dublin, Offaly, Longford, Cavan and Kilkenny - more than one in 10 people eligible for a vaccine have not gotten one. In Cork, 95.5% of adults are fully vaccinated while 93.5% of over-12s are vaccinated. 

The HSE is continuing to use pop-up clinics and targeted local campaigns to try and get more people to come forward.