There were no Covid-19 outbreaks reported in schools last week

There was a rise in outbreaks across the community, however.

There were no Covid-19 outbreaks in Irish schools last week, according to new data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC). It comes after primary pupils from junior infants to second class and sixth year students in secondary began physically attending school again last week on 1 March. Despite the return of over 300,000 students to the school setting, the HPSC's weekly outbreak report - accurate up to midnight on Saturday 6 March - reveals no new outbreaks associated with school children or staff were reported. However, the overall number of outbreaks notified in the seven days up to Saturday increased by 64 compared to the previous week. Figures jumped to 431 from 367, with the majority of outbreaks (259) deemed private house/family outbreaks, a rise of 128 in seven days. NPHET said this week the sharp uptick of outbreaks in this cohort is the result of better tracking and tracing by public health teams as daily case numbers continue to fall. Earlier this week, the Department of Education confirmed the rest of primary classes will return to school next Monday, along with fifth year secondary school students. All other secondary students are set to go back to school on 12 April after the Easter holidays.