Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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2828. To ask the Minister for Health if there have been outbreaks of Covid-19 in hotels since they reopened; if so, the number of hotels that have been affected; and the number of workers that have been infected in each hotel out of the total of number of workers working in each hotel. [39315/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As a result of the cyber-attack on the HSE IT systems, the national infectious disease surveillance system - Computerised Infectious Diseases Reporting System (CIDR) was not available for the notification of COVID-19 outbreaks from 14/05/2021 to 28/06/2021. CIDR became available again for reporting of outbreaks on 28/06/2021.

During the period of CIDR downtime, regional Departments of Public Health were manually collecting and collating data on significant COVID-19 outbreaks and providing this information to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) on a daily basis. This information was stored in a log of significant outbreaks.

Furthermore, the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases reported on CIDR and in the log of significant outbreaks is a user-defined number that was correct at the time of reporting to HPSC , however case numbers may have increased after the HPSC was informed of the outbreak.

There may be limitations to the available data. Data are provisional and subject to ongoing review, validation and updating.

Hotels re-opened in Ireland on the 2^ndJune 2021.

Data used in this response include hotel outbreaks notified to HPSC between 02/06/2021 to 22/07/2021.

- Outbreaks in hotels since reopening:

There were 33 hotel outbreaks reported during the time period 02/06/2021 to 23/07/2021 with 143 laboratory confirmed cases.

- The number of workers affected in each hotel out of the total number of workers working in each hotel.

Of the 33 outbreaks, one hotel outbreak provided the number of workers working in the hotel: 9 confirmed cases among staff with 120 staff working the hotel.

Please see table below for further breakdown of hotel outbreaks.

Table 1. Summary of hotel outbreaks by sub-group affected notified between 02/06/2021 to 22/07/2021 (n=33)

~ Includes 3 hotel outbreaks involving wedding parties, 1 quarantine hotel and 2 social gatherings

*Unknown information if staff or clients were affected by the outbreak