Uruguay confirmed the gradual return of classes face-to-face and extended the remaining health measures in effect until May 16.

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Poe confirmed on Wednesday Gradually return to the classroom face to face. It will be phased and will begin on May 3, when rural school students will return to classes with one teacher.

At a conference from the Executive Tower, the president also mentioned this Other restrictions imposed to mitigate the impact of the pandemic will be extended until May 16: Close public offices, close free shops at the border, ban social events and public performances, close bars and restaurants at midnight, and ban amateur sports, gyms and clubs.

“There is a decrease in the average cases. We are not satisfied, nor are we satisfied with the decline in mobility. Although there is a decrease, we hope it will be greater,” said Lacali Bo. He added, “We have a light that gives hope, which is the decrease in the number of health personnel, which is notoriously bad and we have advanced vaccinations. However, we are the least step, not the step that we would like to have, and for this reason the measures extend at least until May 16th.” The only activity we return to is educational in stages.

The Minister of Education of Uruguay, Pablo da Silveira, announced that the government had put a sign ‘Responsible phased schedule’ She explained that the reopening of classes will start on May 3, “but only in rural schools that include one teacher throughout the country,” which reach a maximum of 6000 students.

Da Silvera announced at a press conference on Tuesday that it was “not certain” that in May all students would return to the classroom face-to-face, but it would be a progressive process, stressing that one of the current advantages is More than 70% of teachers are vaccinated against COVID-19.

For his part, President of the Central Steering Board for the National Administration of Public Education (ANEP) Robert Silva stressed, at the same press conference, today, Tuesday, that There will be no new protocolsAs the authorities are satisfied with the completion of educational centers in terms of care and protection measures.

Face-to-face lessons were suspended by Lacalle Pou on March 23 Monitor the increase in COVID-19 cases in the country. Given the continued increase, the anticipated measure was finally extended until April 12th.

Uruguay added 2,939 cases and 46 deaths from the Coronavirus this Wednesday, According to the daily report submitted by the National Emergency System (Sinai). With these new numbers, the country is adding the reality in South America 2497 deaths and 193027 positive cases Since the beginning of the epidemic.

After carrying out 15,171 PCR tests today, there have been 2,939 cases, and since the declaration of a state of health emergency on March 13, 2020, Uruguay has collected 1,774,981 tests. Of these, 28,123 people are currently suffering from the disease 535 of them are in intensive care (CTI).

In this regard, the Uruguayan Society for Intensive Medicine (SUMI) made it clear in its latest report this Tuesday that: 755 of the 999 beds designated for CTI are occupied, accounting for 75.6%. 56.6% of the total is caused by Covid-19 patients.

In addition, all counties (counties) of the country are in the red zone according to the Harvard Index, with more than 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants accumulating in the past seven days. Currently the hardest hit is Tacoarembo (central), with 115.52 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Río Negro (west), 102.93, and Artigas (northwest), 102.68.

Regarding vaccination, 1,153,573 people were inoculated with the first dose of Chinese Sinovac, the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca, or the American company Pfizer, and 587,314 with the second dose of Pfizer or Sinovac. This means that 49.65% of the population received at least one of the two doses.

With information from EFE

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