Covid-19: Relapse in Uruguay; music festival postponed; some in-person classes suspended

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Uruguay saw a spike in Covid-19 cases last week following several outbreaks in different parts of the country. Two days after the borders were opened to tourists , one department has returned to orange on the Harvard index, and hundreds of people are under quarantine.

The first outbreak occurred last Monday in the department of Lavalleja, in the southeast of the country. Twelve new cases of Covid-19 were reported there, and the weekly average number of infected people rose to 11.71 per 100,000 inhabitants, bringing the number of sick people in the department to 50.

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The source of the infection was a school dormitory, from which 20 confirmed cases originated, and 160 people were isolated. The school where the outbreak was discovered remained closed and was disinfected. In addition, cases occurred in five other public schools and one public school with eight cases.

On the same day, the president of the Central Board (Codicen) of the National Authority for Public Education (Anep), Robert Silva, announced that so far, three schools across the country have been closed, and 326 people have fallen ill, including staff and children.

Of these, 266 were kindergarten and elementary school staff and students. Of those 266, 89 percent were children, Silva told Subrayado. He added that there are 340,000 students and 23,000 teachers in public education.

“We have to approach things the way we do, with a lot of responsibility, with constant dialogue with the MSP and with the collaboration of families and ourselves, with personalized care measures,” Silva said.

He also pointed out that currently, 20% of the new cases registered are children.

Due to the resurgence of the disease and the fact that Montevideo remains the department with the most cases, a music festival that was scheduled to take place this Saturday in the municipalities of Montevideo was suspended. A proposal from the MSP “due to the increase in coronavirus cases” suggested the cancellation of the event.

On Thursday (28), 260 new cases were detected, including 126 in Montevideo, 19 in Colonia, and 12 in Lavalleja. In addition, active cases were registered in all 19 departments. In Colonia, 113 active cases were registered on October 14 due to family gatherings and social events.