Significant clusters of new Covid-19 cases have been identified in direct provision centres, among the Traveller community and in meat factories, according to advice given to Government by public health officials.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) highlighted the number of clusters in all three settings and among people in the Roma community and in homelessness services when warning against entering into Phase Four of the Government’s Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business.
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The Government agreed with the advice and decided to postpone the reopening of pubs and increasing the limits on the number of people who can attend indoor and outdoor gathering.
Independent.ie has seen Nphet’s advice which identifies “significant and growing concerns” about the number of outbreaks among vulnerable groups and those living in direct provision settings. They also said there have been “significant outbreaks” identified in the construction and food production sectors.
Taoiseach: Pubs to remain closed and public gathering numbers unchanged
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Health officials said there have 37 new outbreaks in the past week bringing the total to 2,319 overall with 188 remaining active.
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This included 21 outbreaks in Direct Provision Centres involving 235 individual cases – and 47 new cases centre in four clusters were identified in the last week.
Separately, there have been 10 coronavirus outbreaks among the Traveller Community which involved 89 people testing positive for Covid-19. In the past week, 21 new cases relating to two clusters have been linked to the Traveller community.
Health officials identified 51 workplace clusters of the virus with almost half (24) linked to meat processing plants around the country. There have been two outbreaks in meat factories in the last week involving 47 new cases.
There have been four outbreaks in the Roma community since the start of the pandemic involving 42 people testing positive for the virus. There have been four outbreaks involving 15 people in homelessness services.
