The new protocol for contact management of Covid cases in schools comes into force today, developed by the Ministry of Education, with the contribution of the Higher Institute of Health, the Ministry of Health and the Regions.
“The guidelines – reads the note – they favor the provision of the school service in presence, they support the school manager in the initiatives to be taken in the event of a positive outcome and make it possible to make the prevention measures to be implemented by the prevention departments as homogeneous as possible at national level “.
Case isolation, quarantine of contacts and timelines for returning to class are the responsibility of the health authorities. But until their intervention, “in the immediacy of knowing the positive case”, the Institute will activate a “standardized” procedure, which does not involve discretionary health assessments.
In the presence of a positive case in the school setting, public health actions fall within the remit of the Prevention Departments, in charge of arranging the health measures to be taken, including the isolation of cases, the quarantine of contacts and the timing for the return to school of pupils / students / school workers.
Until the intervention of the health authority, in the immediacy of knowledge of the positive case, the school activates the following ‘standardized’ procedure: it informs the Department of the presence of the positive case at school; identifies and reports the ‘school contacts’ and temporarily suspends their didactic activities in presence.
Per ‘school contacts‘, the note continues, we mean children belonging to the same section / group as the positive case for educational services for infants and preschools; the classmates of the positive case (for primary and secondary school); school staff (educators / operators / teachers) who carried out activities in presence for at least four hours in the same environment as the positive case.
In any case, contacts occurred within 48 hours before the onset of the symptoms of the case or in the 48 hours before the date of execution of the positive test (if the case is asymptomatic) are taken into consideration. With reference to these subjects, until the intervention of the health authority, the headmaster (or his delegate) is authorized to temporarily suspend the didactic activities in presence.
The main novelty is represented by the fact that the ‘school contacts’ are subjected to surveillance with tests (to be carried out as soon as possible): if the result is negative they can immediately return to school; if, on the other hand, it is positive, they must inform the Department and the general practitioner and will only be able to return when they are in possession of a negative swab. A further test is scheduled five days after the first.
The conditions for the return to school of subjects placed in quarantine are verified by the Departments and provide for different measures depending on the vaccination status or the outcome of the diagnostic test.
In the presence of an additional positive case in addition to the index case, surveillance with testing is envisaged for subjects vaccinated / healed in the last six months, while quarantine is envisaged for the unvaccinated. Finally, in the presence of two positive cases in addition to the index case, quarantine is provided for the whole class.
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