The number of clusters of coronavirus in nursing homes has more than doubled since the weekend.
Figures released today show there are 86 nursing home outbreaks. On Saturday the figure was 40.
The latest data is based on the 5,593 cases of Covid-19 recorded up until midnight on Sunday 5 April.
The figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show there are now 270 clusters of the virus, linked to 1,103 confirmed cases.
Among these are 46 clusters in hospitals, 33 in residential institutions and 16 in community hospitals or long stay units.
According to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, a cluster is three or more cases in a setting within a 72-hour period.
Of the 5,593 cases, 24% (1,345) have been admitted to hospital.
Up until midnight on Sunday, 194 patients had been admitted to ICU and 204 deaths were recorded.
There has been a further increase in the number of healthcare workers affected with 1,388 healthcare workers having the virus, accounting for almost a quarter of all cases.
Dublin is the county with the largest number of cases, with 3,061, while Cork has the second biggest number at 421 cases, followed by Kildare 200, Wicklow 171 and Meath 168.
The Minister for Health has said that staff and management at nursing homes are working flat out to keep residents safe and he does not want people to be overly worried.
Simon Harris underlined that there is a difference between a cluster and a bad outbreak of coronavirus.
He said the Health Service Executive is working to ensure there are extra supports for nursing homes.
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Around 80% of cases of Covid-19 will be a mild to moderate illness, close to 14% have severe disease and around 6% are critical.
Generally, you need to be 15 minutes or more in the vicinity of an infected person, within 1-2 metres, to be considered at-risk or a close contact.
But there are higher risk settings, where transmission is possible in a shorter time interval, where health staff are dealing directly with known or suspected cases in particular settings and may need personal protective equipment.
