The Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) decided this Wednesday (1st) to resume part of its in-person activities starting July 20th.

The date will mark the return of internal work for researchers and employees currently working from home, as well as essential practical activities of the Multiprofessional Residency in Health Care for Persons with Disabilities.

For the theoretical activities of the Residency, and of the master's degree in neuroengineering, classes will continue to be virtual only for an indefinite period.

The process of selecting new students to enter the master's degree this semester, with final registration date Sunday (July 5), the calendar is maintained, but – as a precaution – the start of classes will also be with remote activities only.

In-person services for the population at the Institute's clinics, in turn, are scheduled to resume on August 3.

For students at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) who have the Anita Garibaldi Center for Education and Research in Health, at ISD, as a setting for practical activities, the resumption will depend on decisions made by the University itself and not on the calendar defined by the Institute.

Prevention and safety

“With the state government decree authorizing the reopening of activities in the state as of this Wednesday, the 1st, the ISD decided to create a schedule that allows for careful monitoring of the pandemic’s behavior. The reality of the state’s health system does not allow for the immediate resumption of full operation of the services that the ISD provides to the population of Rio Grande do Norte. The objective is to have a return with the maximum possible safety and with the necessary care,” reported the Special Commission for the Covid-19 Pandemic, created by the Institute to evaluate internal actions to prevent and combat the disease.

Measures such as the mandatory use of masks and the provision of alcohol gel on the premises, in addition to screening for everyone and temperature checks at the entrance – to identify potential Covid symptoms – will continue to be adopted.

“We will gradually resume, with a reduction in the population circulating in the facilities, and the possibility of adjustments and review of measures according to possible needs”, added the Commission during a meeting to define the calendar.

In-person activities at ISD began to be suspended in mid-March. The worsening of the pandemic and the need for isolation as a preventive measure led to the adoption and extension, since then, of measures to restrict the flow of people.