The Ministry of Education has reported that it eliminates quarantines and isolations in cases of patients with asymptomatic non-vulnerable covid, although it does maintain the mandatory use of masks inside the centers, hand hygiene and ventilation in them, as these are measures "that have given very good results in containing the spread of the virus." Regarding students or teachers with symptoms, it "recommends" that they "do not go to the educational center."
Education explains that only the Special Education Centers (CEE), which have school residences, will continue to be considered vulnerable environments, which will be considered as social health centers and regarding which information will continue to be sent to Public Health. In the archipelago, the CEE "Siete Palmas" and "Hermano Pedro" and their school residences receive this qualification.
On the other hand, Education adds that confirmed cases must take extreme precautions and reduce social interactions as much as possible, in addition to constantly using a mask and maintaining adequate hand hygiene during the 10 days after the onset of symptoms or diagnosis in the case of asymptomatic people. Contact with vulnerable people and participation in mass events will be especially avoided.
It is also specified that the closure of any educational center is not contemplated, and consequently, it is no longer necessary to control the cases or send this data to Public Health or the statistics service of the Ministry of Education, Universities, Culture and Sports, as well as data on outbreaks identified with more than five cases or 20% in a group-classroom.
Finally, it is warned that in the educational field no specific actions or measures will be established aimed at cases or contacts other than those defined in the "Surveillance and control strategy against Covid-19 after the acute phase of the pandemic" prepared by the Ministry of Health, which should also update the organizational aspects of educational centers described in the "Document on prevention and hygiene measures in educational centers."
Workers in vulnerable areas who test positive will not go to work during the first five days
People who work in vulnerable areas and workers who provide support and care to vulnerable people will not go to their workplace during the first five days from the onset of symptoms or from the date of diagnosis in the case of asymptomatic people. Whenever possible, and if it is not susceptible to temporary disability, teleworking is recommended.
After this time, and provided that 24 hours have passed after the disappearance of the fever or there is an improvement in the symptoms, an antigen test will be performed and if the result is negative, the person may return to work. If the result is positive, the test can be repeated every 24 hours until a negative result is obtained in order to return to work.
In addition, the Government of the Canary Islands indicates that diagnostic tests for active infection will not be carried out on symptomatic patients, except for the exceptions contemplated for vulnerable environments or patients or severity of the clinical picture, and attendance at the educational center is not recommended when students have symptoms compatible with Covid-19 or acute infectious diseases.
The document warns that it is foreseeable that the Ómicron variant will not be the last of SARSCoV-2 that may generate concern, so during this transitional phase the extraordinary surveillance and control structures developed during the pandemic must be preserved and ensure that they could be reactivated if necessary, so it is important to keep in mind the reversibility of the strategy in case of a worse evolution of the indicators or the appearance of new variants.