Note on the Plan for Resuming In-Person Activities at Unicamp
Unicamp carefully defined a plan for resuming in-person activities, constantly evaluated by the Internal Commission for Monitoring COVID-19 based on the evolution of the disease in Brazil, the State of São Paulo and the metropolitan region of Campinas. This Commission also monitors the international scenario of the evolution of the pandemic. Based on these scenario analyses, it is currently clear:
1. Unicamp's monitoring plan for resumption is being successful and the community is adhering to the established guidelines, aware of the gravity of the moment;
2. There is, internally, no evidence of a resurgence of the pandemic in the university community;
3. The University is following the São Paulo Plan with the necessary caution given the seriousness of the situation;
4. The State Government remains alert to the possible occurrence of an increase in admissions to ICU beds due to Covid-19 (during the epidemiological week, from 8 to 14 November), with an increase of 18% compared to the previous week (average daily hospitalizations rose from 859 to 1.009). There is the possibility that this effect results from underreporting resulting from problems with timely data insertion due to instabilities in the Ministry of Health's Sivep-Gripe system as of November 5th;
5. Given this scenario, the state government postponed until November 30th the reclassification of the regions of the State of São Paulo in the economic reopening plan, which should have taken place last Monday (16/11).
6. Based on the principle adopted by Unicamp, of following the São Paulo Plan, and taking into account changes in the scenario, the Monitoring Committee recommends postponing the beginning of Period 4 of the Plan for Resuming In-Person Activities, on Unicamp campuses, provisionally moving from 30/11/2020 to 14/12/2020, in order to observe the evolution of the pandemic. With this, the start of Period 5, which was scheduled for 14/12/2020, will also provisionally move to 11/01/2021.
7. This guideline will not harm the scheduled activities, as 21,3% of technical-administrative employees returned, when up to 60% were expected. The recommendation is for units and bodies to continue with predominantly remote activities.
8. The Commission strongly recommends that professional and social activities continue to respect all the precautions recommended by health measures, with an emphasis on maintaining social distancing and the use of protective masks. The pandemic is still present and, therefore, there is a clear need to avoid crowds.
9. The Committee continues to monitor the evolution of the pandemic and will take appropriate steps to ensure the safety of the academic community.
Internal Commission for Monitoring COVID-19.
Campinas, November 18, 2020.
