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The Director-General for Health acknowledges that the reopening of day-care centers carries risks, since “the symptoms in children of kindergarten age are slight” and may be “transmissible to the elderly”.
In a clarification session this Friday, in which several agents involved in the reopening of the kindergartens participated, Graça Freitas tried to convey some reassurance on the subject, stating that, as far as is known so far, the transmission generally takes place “from adult to child ”, and today it is easier to identify the chains of transmission and, as such, to isolate the suspected cases of Covid-19.
In the same session, Renaissance Gathered from sources involved in the meeting, the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security put a “yes” on the reopening of the nurseries, scheduled for May 18.
Ana Mendes Godinho emphasized that the return to social interaction between children and educators still depends on the evaluation that the Government and the health authorities will make of this first fortnight in a state of calamity.
Guidelines are challenging for daycare, children, and parents
Although some of the measures announced this Friday are already included in the nursery contingency plans, others, now announced and to be formalized in the coming days, are a real challenge for educators, children and parents.
Essentially, the measures detailed by DGS are as follows, for all nurseries:
- Existence of an isolation area for suspected Covid-19 cases, with defined and isolable circuits
- Guaranteed replacement of sick employees
- Do not use air conditioning systems in a recirculation system.
- Existence of one disinfectant gel dispenser per room.
- Closure of unused spaces.
- Ventilation of spaces with opening doors and windows.
- Strict hygiene in all spaces, with reinforcement of cleaning and decontamination actions, including the cleaning of tables and chairs between shifts in “dining rooms”
- Distance between children during breaks and eating spaces.
- Cots, beds or cribs always used by the same child and with a minimum space of 2 m between them (there are nurseries that complain about the lack of space to implement this measure)
- Division of classes, making them smaller.
- Fixed classes, occupying the same space every day, with the same educator and with the same circulation circuits.
- Work tables oriented in the same direction (nurseries usually work with round or U-shaped tables)
- Use of a “surgical mask” by professionals and children over 6 years old (below this age, the mask is not allowed)
- 2m spacing between children (as DGS recognizes, not easy to apply)
- Educational material should not be shared among children.
- Personal toys stay at home
- Parents must provide footwear for exclusive use inside the nurseries
- Parents cannot enter the nurseries, and the delivery and reception of children must be done individually.
- In the case of transporting children in vehicles provided by nurseries or companies that provide this type of service, the same rules in force for public transport will apply.
