Covid-19 outbreaks increase in hospitals and nursing homes

The number of Covid-19 outbreaks in hospitals and nursing homes have increased again, according to the latest weekly figures on coronavirus clusters from the HSE.

There were 29 new outbreaks reported in hospital during the week to November 13th, up from nine the previous week, and eight new outbreaks in nursing homes, up from three a week earlier.

Fifteen of the new hospital outbreaks were located in the east of the country.

There were 72 open outbreaks in hospitals with 56 new weekly cases linked to outbreaks at the end of the week and 60 open outbreaks in nursing homes with 18 new linked cases notified.

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An outbreak or cluster is defined as two or more linked laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases.

An outbreak is deemed To be “open” if there are new infections emerging from it. It is considered “closed” if there have been no new infections for 28 days.

There were a further three outbreaks in community hospitals and “long-stay” residential units with 43 new linked cases during the most recently reported week.

Overall, there have been 130 deaths in nursing home outbreaks in the fourth wave of infections since June and a further 10 in outbreaks at community hospitals and long-stay residential units.

There were 159 people hospitalised associated with these outbreaks in nursing homes and community hospitals but none were admitted to intensive care units.

There have been 152 outbreaks in acute hospitals since June with 796 linked cases, including 240 healthcare workers. Twelve people were admitted to ICU and 66 died.

The number of new outbreaks overall decreased by 19 to 151, the latest weekly figures show.

The number reported in schools fell to 16 from 34 the previous week but rose by two to nine in childcare facilities.

There were 37 new cases linked to school outbreaks and 22 linked to childcare facilities. There have been 1,543 linked cases of Covid-19 in schools during the fourth wave.

There were 29 new family outbreaks reported, down from 34 the previous week.

Household clusters account for highest number of outbreaks during the fourth wave of the pandemic. There have been 792 family outbreaks since June.

There was just one new outbreak linked to a pub, down from three a week earlier.

There were six new outbreaks associated with workplaces, down from 24 the previous week. The locations affected included two building sites and a meat processing facility.

Among vulnerable groups, there were 13 new outbreaks within the Traveller community with 17 new cases.

At the end of the week, there were 94 open outbreaks within the community. There have been 894 cases linked to 160 outbreaks, 24 hospitalisations and less than five deaths.

There were three new outbreaks in the Roma community with 10 new cases notified.

There were no new outbreaks reported in prisons but a further 23 cases linked to one open prison outbreak notified during the week. There have been three prison outbreaks since June.