Staff at the nursing home will be offered extra support.
Staff at a nursing home in Co. Laois will be offered additional support after nine residents died over the weekend.
Eight of the residents had tested positive for Covid-19.
The deaths come amid concerns over the number of clusters in nursing homes, which stands at 155.
Meanwhile, two healthcare workers at St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny have died from the virus, bringing to three the number of healthcare workers who have lost their lives.
Dr. Cillian De Gascun, of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said the level of the spread in nursing homes was not anticipated:
''The scale of the infection numbers in the nursing home setting I think was probably not something that was envisaged early on.
''It wasn't something we had seen from early stages of the pandemic in other countries but it's certainly a priority now for the HSE''.
