There was a slight increase in the number of new clusters of COVID-19 last week.

New data released by the Health Protection and Surveillance Centre (HPSC) found there were 352 new clusters, up from 348 the previous week.

Of these clusters, 288 were in household settings – up 26 from the week before.

Schools accounted for 14 outbreaks, while the number of clusters in hospitals, nursing homes and workplaces saw small drops.

The most clusters were, once again, private houses. At present, the State is in Level 3 which permits no visitors to private homes, apart from those in your support bubble.

From December 18, residents from two other households will be allowed to visit.

The number of COVID-19 outbreaks notified in Ireland by outbreak, setting and by closure status, up to midnight on 05/12/2020. Source: HPSC

Workplaces

In total, 319 COVID-19 outbreaks up to midnight on December 5 have been linked to workplaces.

85 of these outbreaks have been notified in businesses associated with food and/or beverage production or processing, of which 61 were in meat/poultry/fish processing plants.

There were eight new COVID-19 workplace outbreaks notified during week 49, down from 20 a fortnight ago. According to the most recent report, no outbreaks occurred on construction sites this week.

Among the vulnerable populations, there were two new outbreaks reported during week 49: one in the Irish Traveller community in HSE West and one in a Direct Provision Centre in HSE Northeast.

It comes as there were one additional deaths and 215 more cases of coronavirus here on Wednesday.

Main image: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie