A new analysis has found that many of the factors associated with Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes in the third wave of the pandemic, were the same as those for the first and second waves.
The finding was contained in a study carried out by the Health Information and Quality Authority and the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
It found there were more outbreaks of the virus in the third wave than during the first two waves combined, but fewer nursing homes had more than one outbreak.
An outbreak is defined as two or more linked cases. HIQA's Chief Scientist Dr Conor Teljeur said: "The likelihood of outbreaks in nursing homes was still associated with higher community incidence of Covid-19, the number of beds in a nursing home, and being in close proximity to other nursing homes." The report said the roll-out of Covid vaccinations had a "pronounced and positive" impact on the number of cases in nursing homes.