Answering the Call to Fight COVID-19

Our UNIFACS medical students are literally answering the call to help fight COVID-19. Since March, more than 110,000 Brazilians have received medical advice via a coronavirus enquiry helpline operated by medical students, including those from UNIFACS.

Our fifth- and sixth-year students are providing free phone consultations to callers with coronavirus symptoms or other related conditions, such as distress. The phone assessments help determine a person’s need to attend a medical clinic or hospital.

The ‘Tele Coronavirus’ service offers callers prompt advice, potentially reducing the risk of people who may have COVID-19 from circulating in the community.

Callers dial the free 155 number and receive guidance from appropriately trained medical students who follow strict protocols adopted by Brazil’s State Health Secretariat and Ministry of Health.

Similar to a medical clinic, Tele Coronavirus has a ‘waiting room’ whereby attendants receive calls and forward them to medical students who are ‘on call’. Data recorded by the students during the phone calls is used to support an individual’s health management plan.

Laureate is extremely proud of the commitment and contribution our faculty and students, including this team of UNIFACS students, are making in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Importantly, these students are using what they’re learning to help improve lives during the pandemic and create positive change.

To us, they are our Laureate Heroes.