Fifteen outbreaks of Covid-19 were recorded in schools in the State last week with a further 10 detected in childcare facilities, the latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) show.
It said a total of 59 confirmed cases arose from the school outbreaks and 24 were linked to those in childcare centres between October 10th and 16th. An outbreak or cluster is defined by the HPSC as two or more confirmed infections.
Of the 11,986 confirmed cases in the week up to last Saturday, 75 per cent were in people aged over 18. Some 5 per cent of cases were among children aged up to four with 14 per cent among five to 12-year-olds and 5.5 per cent among teenagers. There were zero confirmed cases in healthcare workers.
Longford had the highest incidence rate of Covid-19 at 506.4 cases per 100,000 people during the week, followed by Carlow (472.5), Waterford (464.0) and Kerry (434.0).
Offaly (148.8), Wexford (163.0), Wicklow (174.1) and Mayo (187.7) had the lowest incidence rates per 100,000 people.
Among the confirmed cases, the most likely transmission source was contact with a known confirmed case (36 per cent), followed by community transmission (32.3 per cent).
The HPSC said some 28 per cent of cases are under investigation while in 1.6 per cent of cases were deemed to most likely be “travel related”.
A total of 136,690 Covid-19 tests were carried out between October 10th and 16th, with a positivity rate of 7.3 per cent.
