“The testing process in the public and private sector of education and teaching establishments continues from Monday, coinciding with the beginning of the 3rd term and the resumption of classroom activities for the 2nd and 3rd cycles of basic education. Approximately 150 thousand teaching and non-teaching workers will be tested between the 5th and the 9th of April”, reads a statement.

According to ministerial officials, this is the second phase of the “National Testing Strategy” for SARS-CoV-2 and, “as usual, this information has already been sent to schools”.

The action is extended to “all workers of Activities of Animation and Support of the Family (AAAF), Activities of Enrichment Curriculum (AEC) and Component of Support to the Family (CAF) in the 1st cycle of basic education (CAF1), in “municipalities with an incidence rate greater than 120 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants in the last 14 days”.

“According to information provided by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), all vaccinated teachers and non-teachers should also be tested”, explained the Ministry of Education, which added that, since January, another 150 thousand teachers and non-teachers, approximately, have already been subject to antigenic tests.

On Monday, the President of the Republic and the Minister of Education will visit the Elementary School Francisco Arruda, in Lisbon, thus accompanying the process of reopening the establishment and the said testing.

Tiago Brandão Rodrigues will also travel to the Carvoeira School Center, in Ourém, to attend its inauguration, after an investment of “more than 1.8 million euros” in a “building” that “responds to about 200 children in education pre-school and 1st cycle of primary school”.