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Masks and online booking: How Italy’s universities plan to reopen after lockdown

As universities as well as schools prepare to restart in September, here's a closer look at the plans for keeping students and staff safe on campus.

Masks and online booking: How Italy's universities plan to reopen after lockdown
A student wearing a mask at Milan's Bicocca University on March 5th, shortly before the closure. Photo: AFP

The Italian government's Scientific Technical Committee has on Monday signed off on a list of protocols to be followed in the country's universites as academic life is set to restart from mid-September, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports.

All schools and universities in the country were forced to shut down on March 15th due to the coronavirus crisis, but though new cases have recently risen again the government insists safety measures will allow reopening in September.

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University students can expect to wear masks whenever on campus, and to attend some classes remotely.

Here's a closer look at the rules being put in place for universities (we also have details on school reopenings and the measures being put in place for kindergartens in separate articles).

Socially-distanced lectures

Under the new protocols, students will need to be seated at least one metre apart during lectures. To ensure this, lecture halls where seating cannot be moved can only be filled to 50 percent of their usual capacity.

Crowding must be avoided as people enter and exit the room, for example by using separate entrances and exits or setting up “dedicated pathways”, the committee wrote.

Universities must also be able to guarantee that the rooms will be adequately ventilated, cleaned daily, and equipped with hand sanitiser.

Photo: AFP
 
Advance booking online
 
As lecture halls can only be half-full, students wanting to attend a class in person must reserve a seat online. Anyone who doesn't manage to bag a seat in the hall will be expected to attend remotely.
 
Reservations are to be made via apps, which many universities in Italy already have up and running. The University of Padua is using an app called EasyRoom, while Cagliari's version is called App Posto.
 
Some universites say they will arrange for all first-year students to be able to attend lectures in person, Repubblica reports.
 
Anyone who is unable to attend in person will have the option of following all classes remotely, for example students who are based remotely, or who are in at-risk groups.
 
 
Masks compulsory
 
Both students and staff will need to wear masks at all times when on the premises, and they may not be lowered or removed when in class, the guidlelines state.
 
No temperature checks
 
There's no requirement for universities to ensure students or staff have their temperatures checked on arrival. However, anyone with a high temperature or other symptoms is required stay at home.
 
What if someone at my university tests positive?
 
In the case that a student or staff member is suspected of having Covid-19, the university is required to notify health authorities and ensure the person can be isolated until a test can be performed.
 
If the person tests positive, contact tracing will begin and a decision will be made on a case-by-case basis as to whether a building or university should be closed temporarily. This decision is down to local authorities rather than the university itself.

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

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Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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