During the summer season, some schools offer recreational activities among their partners prior to the return of the school year. The institutions are aware of the recommendations of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) to deal with outbreaks of contagion potentiated by the omicron variant.
The summer colony of the ACJ Educational Institute crosses two coronavirus outbreaks. Both groups are in quarantine, one of them awaiting medical discharge, confirmed the educator María Legorburu in dialogue with The Observer. There are 220 children who participate in recreational activities, divided into groups of between 20 and 25 children, aged 2 to 6 years.
Endorsed by the Ministry of Public Health, the institution acts when two or more infections arise: they send the entire group to quarantine. “They are swabbed on the fifth business day of the last contact,” explained the educator. This is possible because they maintain an attendance list. As determined by the health provider, students may spend up to 14 days in isolation before returning to the center.
The protocol updated by the MSP and the National Administration of Public Education (ANEP) for the return to classes dictates that attendance will only be suspended in the event of an outbreak of coronavirus in the classroom. Given the emergence of individual cases, both asymptomatic students and teachers can continue their activities.
At the Bethesda Evangelical Institute there was an outbreak of contagion a couple of weeks ago. Of a total of 60 registered, five children were infected, but they closed the doors for a week. After this experience, the institution will consider keeping a record of its vaccinated population for the return to classes, they commented from the institute.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the Sagrada Familia school stopped its summer recreational activities, since the panorama was very “complex”, according to what he told The Observer the administrator Pablo Ferreira. The pilot plan was promoted in winter, as an initiative of the outsourced work of former students of the institution, and was repeated in summer, but it stopped its activities after two years. Ferreira does not know when they will return to their activities since it is uncertain what the school year will bring. in 2021 all levels went through one or two quarantines, including teachers and civil servantslamented the administrator.
When a teacher gets infected, coping becomes easier because they wear masks to interact with students and parents are informed immediately. This is what happened at the Gustavo A. Becquer school. The situation was left to the discretion of the parents and in this way the contagions were stopped “in time”, valued the director, Daniela Oneto.
As of February 10, 2022, 83.08% of the population in Uruguay have one dose of the anti-covid-19 vaccine, and 76.21% have two. Vaccination of children between the ages of 5 and 11 began on January 12 and, less than a month later, 41.89% of children in this range were vaccinated with the first pediatric dose.
vaccination”It cannot be required, but it can be recommended.“to the parents, considered Gabriela Guido, a member of the administration of the Edu School. 52 children attend their summer camp. So far in February they have not had children in quarantine, although they are attentive to the emergence of new positive cases.
The coronavirus vaccine is not mandatory, so institutions cannot distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated children. In the hypothetical case that a child presents symptoms, “it would be prudent” to consult the parents if the child has already gone through the disease or if he has been vaccinated, they considered from the El Cántaro Fresco school in dialogue with The Observer. No outbreaks of contagion have arisen there, but in the event of a source of contagion – of two children or more – the groups would be discontinued entirely.
At the Mariano school, meanwhile, they confirmed that the increase in coronavirus cases did not interrupt summer activities. On the contrary, the cases that have arisen have been “within the family” and did not reach their co-workers.
Martín Lino, director of the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús school, told The Observer who have not suffered from coronavirus outbreaks. In the first fortnight of January, the first and only case was presented at the school in the last two years, she said proudly. The case was isolated and both parents and authorities of the institution agreed that it was a contagion that was not related to the school. To maintain this streak, the institution created an internal protocol consisting of a immediate isolation in the presence of symptoms in the student’s family environment. In this way, it does not matter if the case is positive or a false alarm, given the uncertainty, they make sure that the rest of the children do not get infected.
