This Monday April 26 was marked by the return to class of kindergarten and primary students. On May 3, middle school and high school students will follow suit. To supervise this return to school after the closure of schools for three weeks and limit the circulation of the coronavirus, a new health protocol has been put in place.
The high school students will thus resume the path of their schools in half-gauge. At the same time, screening for Covid-19 will be generalized: students over 15 years old will be able to benefit, from May 10, from one self-test per week. This is also the case for teachers, who will receive two self-tests each week. Saliva tests will continue to be used for elementary school students.
Another novelty: a single case of coronavirus now results in the closure of the class for a period of seven days. The student who tests positive for Covid-19 is isolated for a minimum of 10 days. When a case of Covid-19 is identified, all other students in the class are considered a risk contact case.
How do you define a contact case at school?
A contact case is a person who has shared the same place of life as an individual positive for Covid-19, had direct face-to-face contact, within a meter and regardless of the duration with a positive case, or shared a confined space for at least 15 minutes with a person affected by the coronavirus. And this, in the absence of effective protection measures throughout the duration of the contact.
In the school environment, all students in a class in which a person has tested positive for Covid-19 are considered contact cases. The contact tracing process must determine whether teachers or students from other classes must also be considered as contact cases, in particular with regard to respect for barrier gestures.
Contact case: kindergarten, college… Update on the specifics
There are particularities in the definition of contact cases depending on the level of education (nursery, primary, college or high school) or the infected person (teacher or student).
In kindergarten, for example, the appearance of a case of Covid-19 among teachers does not imply that the students in the class are considered to be at-risk contacts if the teacher wears a mask with a level of 90% filtration. Likewise, the appearance of a case of coronavirus in students does not imply that teachers are considered as a contact case if the latter wore a mask with a filtration level of 90%.
What about in primary, college and high school? “Since the wearing of a mask is compulsory for both staff and pupils in all areas and in particular in classrooms, the appearance of a confirmed case among teachers does not automatically imply that the pupils are considered as risky contacts “, can be read on the National Education website.
School: what if my child is in contact?
When students or teachers are identified as a contact case, they should immediately perform an antigen test. “A negative result does not lift the isolation measure of the contact person”, specifies the National Education. The class is closed for seven days and contact cases must therefore isolate themselves during this time.
To be able to return to school, asymptomatic contact cases over 6 years of age must perform a PCR test after seven days of isolation from the last contact with the positive case. Parents must certify on their honor the completion of this screening test and its negative result. “In the absence of such a certificate, the student’s eviction from school will be maintained until the production of this certificate or failing that for a maximum period of 14 days”, can we read on the National Education website. For kindergarten students, performing a saliva test is recommended, but it is not mandatory.
In all cases, the return to school is subject to strict compliance with barrier measures for seven days, which includes the rigorous wearing of a mask for children over 6 years old.
Source: the website of theNational Education
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