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The Ministry of Education does not reveal how many cases of infection have been detected in schools so far since the start of the academic year. This Tuesday, a week before the start of the new school year, the PUBLIC questioned the tutelage to understand, on the one hand, how many schools had registered infections (in students, staff or teachers) and, on the other hand, how many classes were placed in learning distance for the same reason and for how many students are isolated
In the response, which arrived this Wednesday, a source from the Ministry of Education did not reveal any of these data and redirects the questions to the document published at the beginning of September by the General Directorate of Health (DGS) that aims to guide schools or education about suspected, confirmed cases or even outbreaks.
The PUBLIC also questioned the General Directorate of Health (DGS) to find out which body is in charge of centralizing this information in order to assess how many institutions were affected (or if this team even exists). In response, DGS says that “all clinical reports of confirmed cases are known by the different levels of the health authority: national, regional and local.” “The specific information on the occurrence of outbreaks at the local level is known by the territorially competent health authority, which conducts the epidemiological survey and implements public health measures,” says the national health authority.
And given that the local health authorities have gained, since the beginning of this academic year, a leading role in managing covid-19 cases in schools, the PUBLIC asked each Regional Health Administration (ARS) of the continent how many times Public health teams have had to intervene (although this intervention has not led to any concrete action) on the school grounds since September 14.
Only ARS-Algarve responded to the PUBLIC’s questions, stating that “the public health of the Algarve Regional Health Administration has carried out, to date, seven interventions with schools in the region”. ARS-Algarve did not go ahead with any numbers, only responding that “the public health units and school health teams are monitoring and providing the support deemed necessary.”
At least five interventions
According to the collection made by the PUBLIC, at least five schools in the country have already had to take some kind of measures to contain cases of contagion since the beginning of the academic year.
This Monday it was announced that several school students in the Leiria region had tested positive for covid-19, which led the health authority to place more than 15 young people in prophylactic isolation. The public health coordinator of the Pinhal Litoral Health Center Group, Odete Mendes, confirmed to the Lusa agency that a positive case was registered in the Professional School of Leiria. In the Basic School 2, 3 D. Dinis, in Leiria, the Parents Association announced that a student was also infected, having taken the health authority to put three students in isolation, said Odete Mendes.
At the Basic School 1 / Laranjeiras Kindergarten (EB1 / JI), in Lisbon, classes resumed this Tuesday after being suspended on Sunday. Teaching activities were suspended due to staff shortages as one of them was diagnosed with covid-19.
For this same reason, students from 21 classes at the Palmela Secondary School had to go to distance education this Wednesday after the diagnosis of a case of covid-19 in an operational assistant. In two communiqués published in the last hours, the school affirms that “when there are enough assistants to open the block now closed, these classes will return to the face-to-face regime, which could happen from next Monday.”
On Saturday, 21 students from Lixa de Felgueiras schools and two adults were isolated after having been in contact with an infected person. According to Rosa Pinto, councilor for the Chamber of Felgueiras, told Lusa, all the students were examined and are asymptomatic. The mayor explained that the case was triggered by an employee of a study center who is infected and who had participated in the logistics of transporting the students on Monday and Tuesday.
The Ministry of Education highlights, in the response it sent to the PUBLIC, that in Portugal there is “a current universe of around 1.2 million students from pre-school to high school, to which there are about 210 thousand teachers and no – teachers, distributed by 812 school groups and more than 5000 schools ”. Fonte da tutela also mentions that these data are not yet fully consolidated since, although the new academic year began between September 14 and 17, many schools dedicated these days only to presentations and classes only began in the last days. In addition, explained the same source, schools are empowered to make decisions and are not required to report these events periodically.
The Director General of Health described the start of the school year as positive on Monday, highlighting that the schools where teaching was suspended were due to a lack of personnel and not to the risk of the spread of covid-19. Graça Freitas considered that this return was “quite good”, considering that the reopening of schools implied a large flow of people.
Despite the positive balance, in the first days of school, positive cases of contagion by the new coronavirus were reported in some schools, but the general director assured that “from the point of view of public health, none of the cases would lead to the closure of schools ”.
This Wednesday, Portugal registered three more deaths from covid-19 and 802 cases of infection, which is equivalent to an increase of 1.15% compared to the previous day. Since March, the country has recorded 1,928 deaths and 70,465 infections.
