There was a sharp increase last week in the number of Covid-19 outbreaks among the Traveller community, the latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) show.

There were 29 outbreaks in the community in the week ended January 30th, which was up from 11 a week earlier. This led to a total of 74 cases in the week, up from 62 a week earlier. There were 31 hospitalisations, up from 18 a week earlier, with five of them in ICU.

This brings the total cases reported in the Traveller community in the third wave to 787.

Hospital Report

An outbreak is defined as two or more cases of the disease and it remains open until 28 days have passed without a new positive case being detected.

Decision on AstraZeneca vaccine leaves health service in quandary

---

Covid-19: Pregnant women account for 548 cases since pandemic started

---

Taoiseach cites legal reasons for not implementing hotel quarantine for all arrivals

---

Coronavirus: 94 more deaths and 1,013 new cases confirmed in Republic

---

In the population overall, there were 196 Covid-19 outbreaks notified during the week, which represented a fall of 69 compared with the previous week.

There were 13 new acute hospital outbreaks reported, down from 20 the previous week, as well as 23 in nursing homes and one in a community hospital/long stay unit.

There were 31 outbreaks reported in residential institutions. Seventeen of these were associated with childcare facilities, universities, or with school children or staff, which was down from 28 the previous week.

Elsewhere, there were 29 outbreaks notified in workplaces, which was down from 36 the previous week.

Eighteen outbreaks were in centres for people with disabilities in seven of the eight regions, while there were two outbreaks in mental health facilities.

There was one outbreak in people who attend addiction services, while there were seven outbreaks in Direct Provision centres, up from two the previous week. There were 19 cases associated with these outbreaks.