Coronavirus, in Piedmont new guidelines for the management of positive cases in schools

The guidelines for the management of positive cases of coronavirus in Piedmont schools change. In fact, the Health Department of the Piedmont Region has sent the update of the operational guidelines to the regional health authorities.

The provision, signed by the director of the inter-company health emergencies department (Dirmei) Carlo Picco, by the scientific director of the Dirmei Giovanni Di Perri, by the commissioner of the legal administrative area of ​​the Crisis Unit Antonio Rinaudo and by the person in charge of the sector of prevention Bartolomeo Griglio, applies the new circular of the Ministry of Health to the evolution of the epidemiological framework in the regional territory and the exponential increase in the number of requests for diagnostic tests mainly linked to the school environment.

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In particular, it is established that smears cannot be performed without reservation of the pediatrician of free choice or the general practitioner, while the measures to be taken in the presence of positive cases are reconfigured.

The new directions to follow

The student tested positive with a swab after a report from the school:

• immediate isolation of the subject for 14 days;
• the cohabitants will be subjected to swabs within 4-7 days (times compatible with the incubation of the disease);
• If the partner’s swab gives a negative result, there are no symptoms and the logistical conditions of the house guarantee the isolation of the infected subject, the so-called active quarantine (exclusively at home, work-home) can be adopted with active surveillance always for 14 days ;
• immediate quarantine for all classmates for 14 days; provision by the Department of Quarantine Prevention with passive surveillance for companions;
• the relatives of the partners of the positive subject who are close contacts are not subject to any restriction if there are no symptoms compatible with Covid-19 or indications of an epidemiological nature;
• immediate quarantine for school workers. On the basis of anamnestic and epidemiological evaluations, they can be classified as either “close contact” or “casual contact”; in the first case, according to what was reported for the companions, they will be quarantined for 14 days; In the second case, they will be swabbed in 4-7 days (times compatible with the incubation of the disease) and, in the case of negative swabbing and in the absence of symptoms, it will be possible to adopt the so-called active quarantine (exclusively at home, work -house) with active surveillance always for 14 days.

The student tested positive with symptoms detected at home.

In the event that the onset times of the symptoms manifested by the student allow the exclusion of school involvement, that is, more than 48 hours have passed since the last school attendance, the following measures are applied:

• immediate isolation of the subject for 14 days;
• the cohabitants will be subjected to swabs within 4-7 days (times compatible with the incubation of the disease);
• If the swab gives a negative result, there are no symptoms and the logistical conditions of the house guarantee the isolation of the infected subject, it will be possible to adopt the so-called active quarantine (exclusively at home, work at home) with active surveillance always for 14 days.

In the event that it is not possible to exclude the school’s participation, the measures referred to in the previous point will be applied.

School worker tested positive for swab at school:

• immediate isolation of the subject for 14 days;
• the cohabitants will be subjected to swabs within 4-7 days (times compatible with the incubation of the disease);
• If the swab gives a negative result, there are no symptoms and the logistical conditions of the house guarantee the isolation of the infected subject, it will be possible to adopt the so-called active quarantine for cohabitants (exclusively at home, work at home) with active surveillance;
• if preventive measures are respected, no quarantine measures are applied to students or other school operators;
• in the event of a well-founded suspicion of non-compliance with anticovidity measures, students in classes and school operators identifiable as close contacts will be quarantined;
• For the members of the family of those mentioned, as they are close contacts, the above provisions will apply.

In general, when resources permit, diagnostic swabs can continue to be done in classrooms to trace contacts to increase the likelihood of identifying new outbreaks.

In Piedmont, the 14-day quarantine and not the alternatively planned 10-day quarantine, specified by the Region, continues to apply until rapid tests are available, as, in the current context, in the absence of the test. Quickly, the possible physiological delays both in the execution of the swabs and in the response of the laboratories, could negate the benefits related to the reduction of the quarantine to 10 days.