There were 44 new coronavirus outbreaks in Irish nursing homes last week.

The latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show that 737 nursing home residents tested positive in 44 new outbreaks last week.

It marks a significant increase on the 311 residents who tested positive the previous week.

There were 76 new outbreaks in long-term residential institutions – 27 more than there were last week.

Meanwhile, the number of new clusters in hospitals more than doubled from 16 last week to 37 this week.

There were 14 outbreaks in childcare facilities - twice as many as the week before.

There were nearly 1,000 new cases associated with food production and processing last week.

Some 22 outbreaks and 705 cases were recorded in meat or poultry plants while 38 clusters and 232 cases were recorded in other food production businesses.

A cluster or outbreak is defined as two or more cases in one setting.