The HSE has confirmed that a single outbreak of Covid-19 among students in the west of the country has led to more than 442 further cases in more than 200 separate household outbreaks.
Speaking at this evening's Department of Health briefing on Covid-19, HSE West Public Health Director Dr Breda Smyth outlined the details of how the virus spread.
Dr Smyth said the initial outbreak was "quite large", and involved young adults aged between 16 and 24. Up to the end of yesterday, a total of 442 cases could be linked back to that single outbreak.
Of those 442 cases, 179 were linked to multiple household clusters, where there were multiple households involved. Of these, there were 20 clusters in total, ranging from two to 42 cases each.