Starting tomorrow, any child, no matter what their age who tests positive for Covid-19 will no longer force all their classmates, teachers and ancillary staff into isolation.
Also from tomorrow, isolation will be done transversally, which means that any child who tests positive will only stay at home for five days. In a press conference, the Regional Director for Health, Herberto Jesus said:
“If after these five days the child doesn’t show any any symptoms – and I emphasise: they don’t show any symptoms -, the child can return to school, although this will be in a controlled manner.”
The decision of the health authority was taken today, which surprised everyone, especially as sources had contacted JM saying that mandatory isolation would remain in effect for another week at least.
Explaining his decision, Herberto Jesus said: “We have to realise that this pandemic is an evolutionary and very dynamic process. We already have a two year education gap, and we practically have the entire population vaccinated. We have an omicron variant that triggers a mild illness, almost like a mild flu, and it’s time we started to change, because the world must go on.” Therefore,” he said, “the time has come to change, without losing control of the disease should it evolve into something more sinister.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
