Epidemiological surveillance measures play a fundamental role in prevention da spread of various diseases, including the new coronavirus. At Unicamp, whose return of up to 20% of the contingent of employees has Expected to start on October 19th, it will be no different. The surveillance plan at the University is coordinated by the Community Health Center, Cecom. The team will be responsible for systematically observing the health of employees, teachers and students during the partial and gradual return to face-to-face activities, based on the tripod of mass testing, use of an application to survey symptoms among the community, and contact tracing.
The protocols for the gradual return of Unicamp's activities, built on scientific consensus and much debate, are precise. The various bodies, units and academic institutes, when they begin planning the resumption of a minimum of face-to-face interaction, will have to send a list of names of people candidates to return to work or studies for Cecom. Each of these community members will be tested by the University using the RT-PCR method in the days leading up to the scheduled date of return, and will be released only if the test does not detect the presence of the SARS-Cov-2 virus.
Mass testing, as will be done in Unicamp during the gradual resumption, is an important item for any adequate epidemiological surveillance plan, as recommended by the WHO (World Health Organization) and several epidemiological studies carried out on the distribution of Covid-19 cases in Brazil and around the world.
The capacity installed at Unicamp for testing the new coronavirus will be fundamental in the gradual return of activities. Knowing how the virus is circulating in the asymptomatic population, as did some countries that were successful in confronting the pandemic, such as Germany and South Korea, is decisive so that new outbreaks of Covid-19 do not occur within the communities that we want to protect. .
Monitoring with strict control of symptomatic patients, as has occurred at Cecom since the beginning of the pandemic, will continue to occur in the same way, according to its coordinator, Patrícia Leme. “Suspected cases will be treated, tested and removed from work, in the same way as has been done until now”, she states.
People who test positive and are symptomatic must wait ten days from the date of onset of symptoms, and will be guided by Cecom. Although there is a forecast period of absence, Patrícia explains that this is an average time, but the return is conditional on the total absence of respiratory symptoms and fever. People with a positive test and no symptoms must stay away for a period of ten days from the date of the test.
“Our main objective is to reduce the transmission of the virus within the campuses as much as possible. There is no single model with better results, as we are seeing in other parts of the world, but we are convinced that our strategy is based on correct premises”, says Patrícia. The important thing, emphasizes the doctor, is not only to identify who carries the virus even without symptoms, but also to do tracking the contacts of people who are infected. “That's why the application, which everyone will have to install on their cell phones, will be important. Through it, we will have information about who was in contact with the positive cases, test them and remove them”, he says.
Application: an ally of epidemiological surveillance
Returning to work or study on campus, the member of the university community You must respond daily to a survey, using a smartphone application, the purpose of which is to improve the epidemiological surveillance of Covid-19 at Unicamp, aiming to prevent the occurrence of new cases and outbreaks among members of the university community. The app is now available on the Play Store and the App Store.
The survey contains nine questions, related to the occurrence of symptoms: cough; sore throat; headache, fever (greater than or equal to 37,8ºC) or chills; new loss of taste or smell; nasal congestion or runny nose; nausea; vomiting or diarrhea; chest pain or discomfort and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. Check the guidelines according to the answers:
1) If answer is negative to all questions, there will be an automatic message with guidance on regular attendance at in-person activities and following all recommendations for preventing Covid-19;
2) In case of positive response for less severe symptoms, there will be an automatic message with guidance not to start or not continue in-person activities at the University; adopt social isolation; and look for a reference health service for diagnosis and monitoring (such as Cecom).
3) If there is affirmative answer for more severe symptoms, the message will be guidance not to start or not continue in-person activities at the University; adopt social isolation; and look for immediately a reference health service for diagnosis and monitoring.
In all cases, queries can be resolved via email (css@unicamp.br) or Cecom's telephone number: Campinas (19) 3521-9020/9021/9029, Limeira and Piracicaba (19) 2113-3396
The application will also have a tab called “tests”, where the results will be displayed. When the test is positive, there will be a window for the infected person to inform all their contacts in the last 48 hours. Although this is not a mandatory step, Patrícia comments that it is important to help Cecom identify the possible chain of transmission, also removing those people who had contact with the infected person. “Once you immediately identify the positive person and track close contacts, identifying possible other cases, you block the chain of transmission”, explains the doctor.
People who are contacts of a confirmed case of Covid-19 must stay away for a period of ten days from the last day of contact with the confirmed case. In case there is subsequent manifestation of symptoms, the recommendation is the same as that described for symptomatic people, always taking into account that the period of ten days is an average time and that the return is conditioned on the absence of respiratory symptoms and fever in the last 24 hours.
To members of the university community who have carried out tests outside the University, Cecom requests that they send the results to the team, so that let them be registered in the application, via email: css@cecom.unicamp.br
Community Engagement
For a better result, the strategies will also depend on the involvement of the academic community. Therefore, Patrícia asks that everyone be committed to correctly responding to the survey via the app and adopting protocols for using masks, social distancing and hand hygiene.
The Cecom coordinator still highlights that the information entered into the application will be confidential. Any contact with management will only be necessary to prevent an outbreak from occurring.
Experience in dealing with the pandemic
The strategy to combat the pandemic has already been yielding good results at Unicamp for months. According to data obtained until August 25, the positivity rate among professionals without symptoms in the university's health area is 2,3%. The index includes the sum of tests carried out at the Hospital de Clínicas, CAISM, Hemocentro and Gastrocentro, which represents a total testing of 4.121 people.
Even in HC, where cases of hospitalized patients were, in many cases, serious or critical, the rate of positive tests for Covid-19 in asymptomatic professionals was 2,8%. “These are very encouraging numbers”, says Patrícia.
From mass testing to all members of the university community, including outsourced ones, the expectation is that by January 2020 Unicamp will reach the mark of 100 thousand diagnostic tests carried out during the pandemic - which represents approximately 10% of the population of the city of Campinas.
In addition to teachers, general staff and students, the exam kits produced within the walls of the university city in Barão Geraldo responded to population of 62 cities. During the peak of fighting the pandemic, in June, 3 tests were carried out per day at Unicamp, which represented, at the time, 30% of the total number of checks on positive cases that were being carried out at the state level.
Questions and guidance
Check out the answers to the main questions regarding partial and gradual return by clicking here. If you still have questions, send an email to reta.covid19@unicamp.br or contact us by phone (19) 3521-9130/9021/9029 from 7am to 17:30pm.
Also check out the guidance on safe living available on the Unicamp Portal. Other information will be published constantly, so follow the Unicamp Portal and the University's social networks.
