School principals await more information from the coronavirus guardianship

The request for consideration in conducting study visits abroad, issued by the Directorate-General for School Establishments (DGEstE), is the only indication of the new coronavirus that schools have received, school principals confirmed this Thursday.

In the note sent to schools on Wednesday and published on the official website of the Directorate-General, DGEstE “advises the consideration of the opportunity and convenience of carrying out study visits and other trips abroad, in particular to countries or areas with higher incidence of infection cases “.

To Lusa, the president of the National Association of Directors of Groupings and Public Schools (ANDAEP) stated that, so far, schools have not received any communication regarding Covid-19, in addition to this recommendation and an information poster from the National Health Service (SNS), aimed at children and young people.

“We, the directors, are monitoring the evolution of the situation to the minute, waiting for the tutelage to provide us with more information and the procedures to be adopted”, underlined Filinto Lima, adding that schools have limited themselves to promoting, on their own initiative, actions of awareness raising aimed at students and guardians, in partnership with doctors and nurses from local health centers.

In the same sense, Manuel Pereira, president of the National Association of School Leaders (ANDE) considered that the most important thing that schools can do at this moment is to inform the school community about the epidemic.

“We have tried, at all costs, to avoid social alarm and rationalize the situation with parents and students,” the association’s director told Lusa, adding that strengthening hygiene care in schools has also been a concern.

On the recommendation of DGEstE, Manuel Pereira said that the conducting study visits abroad was already a situation that school principals were aware of, telling Lusa that at the beginning of the week the Group of Schools of Cinfães, which he runs, canceled the trip of a group of students and teachers who were going to visit a school in the Italian region of Tuscany.

The Prime Minister also advised against, this Thursday, the trips of students at Easter time, although he underlined that, at a time when there is no confirmed case in Portugal, it is not justified to close borders or schools, affirming the importance of act without “unnecessary panics” on the coronavirus issue.

The Ministry of Education confirmed to Lusa that additional indications have not yet been transmitted to schools, in addition to the general recommendations for prevention against Covid-19 of the Directorate-General for Health, with whom the tutelage has been in contact to define an action plan as soon as DGS considers justified.

The provisional balance of the Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic is 2800 dead and more than 82 thousand people infected, according to data reported by 48 countries and territories.

In Portugal, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) registered 25 suspected cases of infection, seven of which are still under study. The remaining 18 suspected cases were not confirmed after negative tests.

In the first daily bulletin on the epidemic, released on Wednesday, DGS indicated that, “according to current information, the risk to public health in Portugal is considered moderate to high“.

The World Health Organization has declared the Covid-19 outbreak as an international public health emergency and has warned of a possible pandemic, after a sudden increase in cases in Italy, South Korea and Iran in the past few days.

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