Four out of every five nursing homes in the State reported at least one confirmed Covid-19 case among residents or staff last year, the State’s health service regulator has said. The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) said in its 2020 annual report that 82 per cent of nursing homes had at least one case of the coronavirus disease and there were 702 outbreaks reported across nursing homes during the year. A third of nursing homes reported at least one outbreak, while almost another third reported two outbreaks during the year; 1 per cent of nursing homes reported five outbreaks. The annual report does not cover the third wave, the most severe of the 15-month pandemic, when nursing homes suffered devastating outbreaks of the disease. Hiqa carried out 1,242 inspections of health and social services, including nursing homes, residential centres for people with disabilities and public hospitals, last year.

Source: The Irish Times June 09, 2021 18:25 UTC