There were 46 coronavirus outbreaks associated with Irish schools last week.

The latest data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) shows that the vast majority of outbreaks are still occurring in the home.

There have been 126 outbreaks in schools since they reopened – with more than one third of those detected in the past week.

The HPSC said the outbreaks related to schools are ‘outbreaks associated with school children and staff’; however, transmission of the virus within the school “has not necessarily been established.”

The Association of Secondary School Teachers in Ireland this afternoon confirmed that its members had voted in favour of industrial action over ‘key coronavirus issues’ in Irish schools.

Weekly data on coronavirus clusters from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. Image: HPSC

Meanwhile, there were 28 outbreaks in nursing homes and residential institutions last week, taking the total in those settings to 571 since the pandemic began.

There were 25 outbreaks in workplaces last week and 19 in childcare facilities.

Four of the outbreaks happened in food processing plants and two happened on construction sites or “businesses associated with the construction industry.”

Weekly data on workplace coronavirus clusters from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. Image: HPSC

It comes after the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan warned that Ireland has definitely not yet turned a corner in terms of getting COVID-19 back under control.

There were a further 720 new cases of coronavirus and five additional deaths confirmed yesterday evening.

Dr Holohan said there had been a small reduction in recent days but warned: "We're definitely not at a stage where we can say we can draw a conclusion that this is a trend or this is us getting to the place we wanted to get to."