While schools remain open even in departments placed in confinement, epidemiologist and member of the Scientific Council Arnaud Fontanet believes that this represents a risk in the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Schools had closed their doors during the first confinement but they remained open during the second and are still open even in the recently reconfigured departments with the exception of high school classes which must pass in “half-gauge”.
If the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer thinks that “the advantages of leaving schools open far outweigh the disadvantages “, this is not the case for the epidemiologist and member of the Scientific Council, Arnaud Fontanet. According to him, closing schools would be relevant in the face of the strong circulation of the virus. “Keeping establishments open means taking a risk”, he said in an interview with the Sunday newspaper. According to the Comcor study conducted by the Institut Pasteur, a middle school student increases the risk of being infected by 30%. “If the vast majority of children do not have clinical complications, they expose their relatives with co-morbidities or their grandparents”, explains the doctor. For him, “school is the assumed Achilles heel of the current system “.
Arnaud Fontanet thinks that the idea of passing high school classes in half-gauge is a good one. Thus, he would like to see the colleges do the same. If for the moment such measures do not seem topical, he asks the teaching world, parents and students to‘”Be strict on health measures, especially during meals, avoid groupings around and intensify screening”.
Currently, 80 school structures are closed in France ie sixty-three schools, eleven middle schools and six high schools, which represents 0.14% of school structures. 2018 classes no longer welcome students, i.e. 0.4% of classes in France. Over the past seven days, 15,484 students and 1,809 teachers have tested positive for Covid-19.