Paulo Menezes: “I find it difficult to work” monitoring of unvaccinated travelers

Health surveillance in states and municipalities is already overburdened by the coronavirus pandemic, and relying on them to monitor unvaccinated travelers is risky, says Paulo Menezes, director of the São Paulo Scientific Committee.

“I find it difficult to function because it requires even more work from health surveillance, which are already quite overloaded with their other attributions”, says the expert.

He explains that the procedures related to the prevention measures against the coronavirus of people who are already in the country are already under their responsibility, and that, despite the accumulated knowledge, the difficulty is the operationalization of monitoring in view of the current contingent of surveillance.

Menezes assesses that the most efficient would be the institution of the vaccination passport, which is being requested from Brazilians abroad and which is a common practice, including the requirement of prevention against other diseases for international travelers.

“The vaccination passport would be much simpler, as it is required for Brazilians to travel to other countries. We cannot leave here without presenting a vaccination passport on boarding. Not to mention the requirement for yellow fever vaccination”, he explains.

Institution of São Paulo passport

Menezes says that, in order to decide on the feasibility of a vaccine passport for those who only enter the state of São Paulo, as the state government had promised, it would be necessary to detail the logistical aspects related to this operation.

“From a sanitary point of view, we would like to protect (Brazilians) from this type of exposure. But the ideal would be for the federal government to establish throughout the country (the vaccination passport), since the main entry points are the responsibility of the federal government”, he assesses.

five day quarantine

The director says that the five-day quarantine that will be established by the Ministry of Health for non-vaccinated people who come from outside the country has no proven effectiveness.

“Five-day quarantine is a measure that we have no idea of ​​its effectiveness in preventing new variants from entering the country and starting to transmit to our population”, he says.

Furthermore, he disputes the formulation of the quarantine period, which does not fit into the virus incubation period. “We know that the incubation period can last up to two weeks. Is five days a period that I don’t know where it came from?”, he concludes.

Reference: CNN Brasil

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