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São Paulo Governor João Doria (PSDB) announced today that testing of public school students and employees will begin next week. According to Doria, the evaluation to diagnose a possible contamination by the new coronavirus will help the government and to think about additional strategies to return to school in the state, authorized today after more than six months of suspension due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Today marked the return of face-to-face activities in São Paulo, although it is still optional. State schools are authorized to resume classroom activities for high school and EJA (Adult and Youth Education) students. The return, however, is conditioned to decisions of the city and of the school units themselves.
“The government will begin evaluating the students and officials of the state educational network next week,” Doria said during a press conference at Palácio dos Bandeirantes, in São Paulo. The tests will begin on Tuesday (13), just after the holidays of Nossa Senhora Aparecida.
“The objective is to map the contagion levels in the state network, so that little by little and safely, we have all the procedures monitored by Salud in the state of São Paulo,” added the governor.
The São Paulo government stated that it will evaluate 10,000 students and 9,300 officials. The tests will be of the RT-PCR type, which are samples collected with cotton swabs inserted into the nose or throat.
The tests will cover schools distributed in 20 municipalities. Units will be chosen by lottery. The state government plans to test 100 students per school. All servers will pass covid-19 testing.
Jean Gorinchteyn, Secretary of Health of São Paulo, explained that the type of test RT-PCR was chosen because it shows a more current contamination scenario compared to a serological survey, which analyzes blood samples and was the preferred method for the Municipality of São Paulo, for example.
“The serosurvey tells what happened in the past,” Gorinchteyn said. “This measure allows monitoring the circulation of the virus in a certain health region in real time,” added the secretary.
Turn necessary
The São Paulo governor also commented on today’s return on the state network, which is scheduled for the return of elementary school on November 3.
“Resuming classroom activities is an important measure for children and adolescents,” said the governor. “Young people need to regain social contact,” he added.
