The number of new outbreaks of COVID-19 in private homes decreased by almost one-third last week.
However outbreaks linked to schools almost doubled.
New figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) show there were a total of 772 new outbreaks of coronavirus in all environments last week.
That is 27% fewer than during the previous week, when 1,057 were recorded.
There was a 31% drop in the number of new outbreaks in private homes, with 652 recorded last week.
However, new outbreaks linked to schools rose from 10 to 19.
Number of COVID-19 outbreaks notified in Ireland by outbreak, setting and by closure status, up to midnight on Saturday 21/11/2020. Source: HPSCThere were also 20 new COVID-19 workplace outbreaks in the past week.
There were 30 cases in meat processing plants - compared to just five the week before.
Four outbreaks were in meat/poultry/fish processing plants, and two outbreaks occurred in other food production/processing businesses.
There was also one outbreak on a construction site.
Among the vulnerable populations, there were two new outbreaks reported in prisons and three in the Traveller community.
It comes as there were six additional deaths and 269 more cases of coronavirus here on Wednesday.
Additional reporting: Eoghan Murphy
