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A total of 2,384 students and staff were tested for Covid-19 at 147 schools across the country last week, and 31 people, or 1.3% of the total, were found to have the virus.
The data is contained in the first weekly Covid-19 school mass testing report published on the website of the Center for Health Protection Surveillance.
The Health Service Executive says reports with details on the numbers in schools will now be published every week.
The latest figures bring to 21,130 the total number of children and workers tested in 789 schools since they reopened in September.
Brings to 501 the total number of cases detected as a result of school tests. This is an overall positivity rate of 2.4%.
With regards to children overall, 625 people under the age of 18 tested positive for the virus last week.
Of these, 116 were less than four years old, 241 were between four and 12 years old, while 268 were between 13 and 18 years old.
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The vast majority of virus groups detected by public health authorities are linked to private households.
A cluster is where two or more cases are discovered in an environment. Therefore, a child is much more likely to be considered a close contact and require testing as a result of connections at home than at school.
A total of 8,439 children have tested positive for the virus since schools reopened, bringing the total number of positive cases recorded among children to 9,670.
Also last week, 658 children and workers were examined in 38 day care centers and nine cases were detected.
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