After a meeting between rectors of the main private universities and the Governor of Jalisco, protocols were updated to mandate the tracking and registration of positive Covid cases in the institutions.
The head of the SICyT, Alfonso Pompa Padilla, said that each university will implement its own traceability system, with which it will seek to prevent risks and mitigate them.
“We have to have the ability to detect when we have a positive case, with whom they had contact, and here what we are asking the universities is that, first of all, they have to report any positive case they have and make sure that they can communicate to everyone; the possible students, teachers, or collaborators who had contact with this person so that at least for a few days they are secluded and are under observation,” explained Pompa Padilla.
The update of the protocol will also suggest to higher education institutions the segmentation of groups by days, hours, or section within the campus to facilitate preventive isolation by group when there is a suspected or positive case of Covid-19.
Other mandatory measures within the protocol, in addition to the use of a mask, social distancing, hand cleaning, and the traceability system, are:
- Avoid crowds. No more than 50 percent of the student enrollment present at the facilities.
- Activities in closed spaces will have a maximum duration of 45 minutes and a distance of three square meters per student must be respected.
- Extra academic and complementary activities will be supervised and will avoid physical contact.
- Allow the use of cafeterias under the same restaurant protocol.
- Allow access to non-essential areas or facilities such as: auditoriums, theaters, gyms, sports spaces, among others, under the same protocol as cinemas and gyms.
- Allow access and stay in the library under measures of distancing and sanitation.
The secretary added that it will be recommended to reinforce the distance education model, and that the attendance of students will be considered voluntary.
Jalisco's higher education enrollment is approximately 286,000 students, which represent only 38% of young people in the 18 to 24-year-old group and only 11% of young people between 20 and 39 years old, a population where the highest percentage of positive cases of Covid-19 are found, with 57% according to data from Radar Jalisco.
All the details and updates of the measures established in the Action Protocol for Higher Education Academic Activities can be consulted at:
https://reactivacioneconomica.jalisco.gob.mx/protocolos-y-tutoriales/