The Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) decided to suspend face-to-face classes, for an indefinite period, as a prevention of the new Coronavirus.
The measure is valid from this Tuesday (17th) for students of Multiprofessional Residency Program in Health Care for People with Disabilities, from ISD, It's from master's degree in neuroengineering, who had been carrying out in-person activities at the Center for Health Studies and Research (CEPS) Anita Garibaldi and at the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neurosciences (IIN-ELS), in Macaíba (RN).
Activities will now take place on digital platforms.
“The measure is valid from today, for an indefinite period, until further evaluation by the Special Commission for the Covid-19 Pandemic (created last week by the ISD to monitor and evaluate measures related to the Coronavirus)”, says the president of the Commission and general director of ISD, Reginaldo Freitas Júnior.
The communication strategies and platforms that will be used in each subject, whether Skype, email or others, will be informed by each professor at the Institute.
Students with experiments or individual research activities to be carried out at IIN-ELS should discuss a possible schedule, and how to proceed, directly with their advisors.

Services
The suspension of face-to-face classes adds to another preventative measure that the ISD had announced Friday: the suspension, also for an indefinite period, of all activities that would involve larger groups, including visits to facilities, training, meetings and a colloquium that was scheduled for students and staff on Monday, the 16th.
Individual outpatient care is maintained, with special attention to the elderly group, who now have a special reception and waiting environment. Prevention guidelines will be given to users by professionals at clinical meetings

Prevention
“This is the time to understand that the collective good is above any particular reason or interest. All ISD projects and actions are and have always been strongly linked to the principle of social responsibility. The COVID-19 pandemic requires all of us to make today's decisions to further reinforce this commitment”, says the general director of ISD, stating that “the time is for social mobilization to avoid the exponential increase in cases.”
He explains that the decision is based on the fact that the Institute is a reference center for care for risk groups (elderly people with comorbidities, high-risk pregnant women, immunocompromised people, children with neurological diseases, prematurity, etc.).
The ISD serves an average of more than 100 people per day at CEPS, in the Epilepsy clinics (child and adult); Parkinson's; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Spinal cord injury (child and adult); Microcephaly; Hearing Impairment (child and adult); Prematurity and Neurogenic Bladder. At IIN-ELS, it hosts Brazil's first master's degree in Neuroengineering and develops, in addition to research, rehabilitation treatments through the SUS.
The prevention measures were announced after the State confirmed the first case of Coronavirus infection in Rio Grande do Norte and that there are suspected cases being monitored.