Covid monitoring in public schools stumbles in the state and city of SP

More than two years after the beginning of the pandemic and in the face of a new wave of Covid contagion, the education departments of the state and São Paulo City Hall are unable to fully monitor cases of the disease among students and employees.

Teachers and parents of students from both networks report apprehension about the lack of communication and clarity about the protocol to be followed when schools register positive cases. They also complain about the lack of transparency of the secretariats to inform when cases are confirmed.

The increase in the number of occurrences of Covid-19 in recent weeks has led municipal and state public schools to return to distance learning in whole or in part. But the scale of this measure is uncertain.

wanted by Sheetthe SME (Municipal Secretariat of Education), managed by Ricardo Nunes (MDB), did not report the number of schools with total or partial suspension of face-to-face classes due to infections by the coronavirus.

On the other hand, Seduc (State Department of Education) responded that there were 16 schools on Tuesday (7) with the total interruption of face-to-face classes. The Rodrigo Garcia management portfolio (PSDB) was unable to say, however, if there are others that had to suspend the activity in only part of the classes.

In December 2020, the state government created Simed, a system in which state and private schools are required to register positive cases. The secretariat, however, created a series of rules for filling, which has led to an underreporting of cases.

In August of last year, when face-to-face classes resumed, the government stopped counting confirmed cases of Covid and started to classify them only as “probable cases” of infection.

On Monday (6th), the Sheet consulted Simed and there were only two schools on record with confirmed cases across the state in the epidemiological week of May 29 to June 4. After Seduc was asked about the probable underreporting, the system was updated and now counts 209 schools with confirmed cases in the period.

In a note, the secretary said that the difference between the data is due to the fact that the consultation of the Sheet to the system having occurred at the moment when there was a “punctual instability, which was promptly corrected”.

There are units that have not even informed families when there is confirmation of an infection. Others have chosen to exclude only the sick student or employee, and there are those who adopt the suspension of face-to-face activities for some classes or the entire school.

A survey carried out by Creces (Council of Representatives of School Councils) identified 42 units that had to suspend face-to-face classes in only two teaching directorates of the municipal network of São Paulo.

According to Crece Santo Amaro, in the south of the capital, 31 schools registered cases between students and teachers and had to return to remote teaching for at least some classes. According to the parents, each unit has followed a protocol. In the Capela do Socorro region, also in the south, there are 11 units.

Fernanda Machado, 37, is the mother of three students at Emef (municipal elementary school) Paulo Gonçalo dos Santos. A unit teacher tested positive for Covid, and face-to-face activities were suspended in eight classes.

Only one daughter, aged 12, had to stay at home. The other two boys, aged 10 and 14, are still going to school. “It makes no sense to allow them to go to class if they have contact with their sister at home. If there is a risk that she may have become infected, we should all be instructed to isolate ourselves or be tested. But there was no orientation”, he says. Ax.

At the school of the son of Ailton Amorim, 43, Emef José Rezende, also in the south zone, despite two teachers having been diagnosed with Covid, students were not instructed to isolate themselves or take a test before attending face-to-face activities, even who have had contact with the teachers.

“If the child had contact with the teacher, shouldn’t he be tested? Or stay at home until the parents are sure he won’t contaminate other children? There is no safety protocol at all in schools”, says the father.

Teotônio Nóbrega, 57, a geography teacher in municipal and state schools in São Paulo, began to have symptoms of Covid on May 24 and withdrew from the face-to-face activities of the two units. After five days, he received a positive result for Covid.

At the municipal school, the decision was made to suspend the face-to-face model of the classes in which he had taught when he had symptoms. At the state school, he says that the students were not even informed that he was sick and continued to attend classes normally.

“Per week, I teach about 300 students. Not reporting that I was sick means that 300 young people continued to walk around without knowing that they had contact with someone infected. That’s why the number of cases escalates so fast,” he said. the teacher.

Parents and teachers also report concern about the fact that the secretariats will not again require the use of a mask in schools, even in the face of the increase in cases.

A teacher from the municipal network, who asked not to be identified, said that many students ignore requests from educators to use protection and argue “they are no longer obliged”.

Epidemiologist Ana Brito, from Fiocruz, says it is “incomprehensible” that after more than two years of the pandemic, the secretariats have not developed an effective system for monitoring Covid cases in schools.

“If the state and city hall consider education a priority, as managers usually say, they should already have structured a communication, monitoring, tracking and testing system to guarantee the safety of students and teachers. it says.

“It’s almost like letting the virus circulate freely through schools. Even more so in this situation where all safety measures have been removed, such as the use of a mask and distancing”, he says.

In addition to not informing the number of schools that suspended classes, the secretariats also did not respond if they are studying strengthening security measures to avoid an increase in contagion in the units. Both said only recommending the use of a mask in closed school environments.

Although it did not report how many schools had to partially suspend face-to-face activities, Seduc said it continued “monitoring the functioning of the state network teaching units, under its administration, and following the guidelines of the health authorities in prevention of Covid-19”.

According to the folder, the protocol to be followed by schools provides that students or teachers with suspected or confirmed disease must remain in isolation for seven days. If symptoms persist, they must remain isolated for ten days.

It also says only recommending that state schools notify the Health Surveillance of the municipality in which they are located when they register more than one case.

The SME informed that the regional directorates of education accompany the schools and provide all the pedagogical support to the students when the unit has remote activities in a partial or total way. “Protocols are followed and departures are carried out according to the specificity of each unit.”

The SMS (Municipal Health Department) reported that “eventual outbreaks of flu syndrome should be reported in the event of two or more cases, between suspected and confirmed”.