Mask is no longer mandatory indoors at USP – 01/19/2023 – Health

USP (University of São Paulo) overturned, last Wednesday (18), the mandatory use of masks in all closed spaces of the university. The item usage ordinance had gone into effect on November 11 of last year.

Now, masks will only be mandatory on transport, including internal university buses, and in unit hospitals. In the state of São Paulo, masks were once again recommended on public transport on November 25 last year.

The measure was published in a note signed by the dean of USP, physician Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior. According to the note, the change occurs due to the “positive evolution of the pandemic in the state of São Paulo”.

Use continues to be recommended for people with respiratory symptoms or those who have recently been exposed to the virus.

The revocation of the obligation to wear masks, however, may have been influenced by a provisional injunction issued by the TJ-SP (Court of Justice of São Paulo) on the 13th.

According to Judge Edson Ferreira da Silva, author of the injunction, the suspension of the obligation was accepted after verifying a request from a university student.

“Obligatoriness is removed, based on the constitutional principle of legality, article 5, II, according to which no one will be obliged to do or not to do something except by virtue of the law”, says the text.

The judge also said that the federal law had already suspended the health emergency and that the use of masks was a measure of “temporary effectiveness, ended with the declaration of the Minister of Health ending the state of health emergency resulting from Covid-19” .

In the note published last Wednesday, USP does not mention the judge’s injunction, but says that with “the continuous improvement in the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks” it suggests “that the mandatory use of masks in closed environments is restricted to the public transport and health services”.

Despite the situation of cases and deaths being stable in recent days, the arrival of a new variant, highly transmissible, XBB.1.5, still worries specialists due to its possibility of escaping antibodies, including those generated by vaccine.

In the last week, Fiocruz released the InfoGripe bulletin pointing to Covid as the main cause of respiratory syndrome in adults and children over five years old in the country.

See the note in full below.

Announcement from the Health Advisory Committee of the Rectory

Considering the positive evolution of the coronavirus pandemic in the State of São Paulo, with continuous improvement in the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to Covid-19 in recent weeks, and in the number of leaves due to the disease among members of the university community, the Advisory Committee of Health of the Rectory suggests that the mandatory use of masks in closed environments at the University be restricted to public transport and health services on campuses from this date.

However, the use of masks is strongly recommended:

for people who have respiratory symptoms or who have recently been exposed to individuals with Covid-19;

those with comorbidities at risk of developing severe Covid-19;

and in the closed environments of the University, when people gather.

The Advisory Commission reinforces the need to prove the additional dose of the vaccine against the coronavirus for access to the University’s premises as an effective measure of individual and collective protection against infection.

São Paulo, January 18, 2023.

Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior

Dean of USP