Phase 2: UFSC has new guidelines for in-person work starting from 10 January

04/01/2022 14:11

The Central Administration of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) published, on 29 December, the Normative Ordinance no. 416/2021/GR, announcing new measures for the gradual resumption of on-site activities in the administrative and academic units of the institution. The date scheduled for the start of Phase 2 is 10 January 2022. In the Phase 2 for combating the COVID-19 pandemic, the following in-person activities are allowed: activities with an impact on COVID-19 or other essential activities approved by the Central Administration, essential in-person organization, and execution of general (administrative and pedagogical) blended activities.

According to the Ordinance, the University’s in-person activities will be resumed following the activity plans presented in the documents reported by each university unit. As in Pre-Phase 2, the units need to make public their activity plan and organize the in-person work shifts. The document also emphasizes that the resumption of in-person activities will be gradual and full-time, and that the work environment for the activities must meet the appropriate sanitary conditions.

The Head of the Rector’s Office, Prof. Áureo Mafra de Moraes, explains that, in Phase 2, all UFSC staff will work in-person at some point, except for those people included in the risk groups, which shall continue working from home. All units shall be open during regular office hours, but staff members can work on rotation. The number of staff members working simultaneously must take into account the environmental conditions, such as air circulation, so as to avoid crowds.

For the undergraduate and graduate programs, Phase 2 maintains the online activities, except for authorized practical and theoretical-practical classes. According to the 2022 academic calendar, approved by the University Council (CUn), the resumption of in-person classes will take place when the next academic semester (2022/1) starts. For undergraduate programs, this will be 18 April. For graduate programs, classes are scheduled to begin on 7 March.

The Phase 2 activity resumption will cover all administrative and academic units at UFSC and at the Professor Polydoro Ernani de São Thiago University Hospital (HU/UFSC), except for the Child Development Center (NDI) and the Colégio de Aplicação [Laboratory School] (CA), which follow a separate calendar. The NDI and the CA shall resume their in-person activities completely during Phase 3, starting from 10 February, according to the Normative Ordinance no. 417/2021/GR.

Both ordinances stress that all deadlines and measures may be altered depending on new events. The guidelines on the procedures and conducts to be adopted for the development of activities at the University are established in the Biosafety Guide for the resumption of in-person activities at UFSC during Phase 2.

Risk Groups

Only servants included in the risk groups, which have undergone recent changes (for more information, refer to the PRODEGESP website), may continue working from home, complying with the Normative Instruction SGP/SEDGG/ME no. 90, of 28 September 2021. On 15 October, the Central Administration issued two ordinances on the subject: Normative Ordinance no. 413/2021/GR, which includes people with disabilities in the risk group, and Normative Ordinance no. 414/2021/GR (with its annex), which sets guidelines for the work of servants included in the risk group.

The current Risk Groups are:

  • people aged sixty or over;
  • smokers;
  • obese people;
  • people with comorbidities: cardiomyopathies of different etiologies (heart failure, ischemic cardiomyopathy, etc.); arterial hypertension; cerebrovascular disease; severe or decompensated lung diseases (moderate/severe asthma, COPD); immunodeppression and immunosuppression; advanced-stage chronic kidney disease (grades 3, 4, and 5); diabetes mellitus, according to clinical judgment; chromosomal diseases with a state of immunological weakness; malignant neoplasm (except non-melanotic skin cancer); hepatic cirrhosis; and hematologic diseases (including sickle cell anemia and thalassemia);
  • pregnant women;
  • parents, stepparents or guardians of children who are of school age or younger, in places where the suspension of in-person classes or daycare services is still maintained, and who need the assistance from a parent or guardian, without a spouse, partner or other adult family member in the household able to provide assistance; and
  • people living with persons with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

Servants in these conditions who wish to perform in-person work will need to sign a self declaration form and forward it to the Prorectorate for Personnel Management and Development (PRODEGESP) as instructed here.

Activity Plan

The process for approval and publicity of the units’ Activity Plans also changed. The plans must be sent to the Rectorate’s Office (GR) via the Administrative Processes System (SPA) and published on the units’ websites. They shall contain details about the work schedule, rotation and shifts.

Read more: coronavirus.ufsc.br.

 

Translated by SINTER/UFSC

Read the original article here.