Students should be separated as much as possible in schools, says DGS

This Wednesday 23 active outbreaks were identified in schools, seven in the north, three in the center, 12 in Lisbon and one in the Algarve, with Alentejo being the only region without active outbreaks in the school environment. The state of affairs was made by the Director General of Health at this Wednesday’s conference on the evolution of covid-19 in the country.

Graça Freitas acknowledged that the decision to send students home, in addition to health problems, has a lot to do with the organization of schools, which is not the same throughout the country. “The decision to bring home a few people [depois de um caso confirmado], or go to the whole class, has to do with the organization of the school. The more organized the school is, by bubbles, the easier it is to send home the minimum number of people “

These 23 outbreaks are already linked to 136 positive cases among students and staff, Graça Freitas said, adding that of these cases “many people will be under surveillance.” Regarding the origin of the outbreaks, the Director General of Health stressed that the role and transmission by children is not clear, but so far epidemiological surveys have indicated that children are infected by sick relatives and not the other way around. There are also outbreaks related to previously infected employees outside of the school setting. “It is too early to know what is the impact of schools on the dynamics of the epidemic. It does not seem to be very big, there are few cases involved, although, varying from school to school, it may imply the closure of classes “, reiterated Graça Freitas, asking the schools to” separate the students and their activities as much as possible so that there are one case, you don’t have to go home with many others ”.

This week, Fenprof denounced the existence of COVID-19 cases in schools in 47 counties, demanding the release of a detailed map. The DGS reference for schools considers that there is an outbreak in the school setting when there are two or more cases with active infection and that can be linked to each other. MFR