Three simple self-tests for contact cases at school, without obligation of antigen test or PCR: Jean Castex, announced on Monday a relaxation of the health protocol in the face of the Covid epidemic in schools and the risk of mayhem. A “” simplification “, to use his word.
“Indeed we see these queues, I am the father of a family, I can see what is happening”, underlined the Prime Minister in the news of 20 hours of France 2, while parents of pupils and teachers are on teeth since the start of the school year and that a strike is looming on the horizon as of Thursday.
He announced three changes to the health protocol, which come into force on Tuesday:
– Parents will no longer have to pick up their child immediately after they have been in contact, but at the end of the lessons.
– Whereas previously, each student identified as a contact case had to immediately undergo a PCR or antigen test, a simple self-test, which must be repeated on D + 2 and D + 4, must be carried out. The three self-tests will be free, thanks to a certificate issued by the school. But they will continue to be distributed only in pharmacies. 11 million new kits must be delivered during the week.
– A single sworn statement, certifying that the first self-test is negative, will suffice for a return in progress.
10,453 closed classes
While pharmacies and laboratories are crumbling under nasopharyngeal swabs, around 1.5 million each day, Jean Castex has however refused to modify French doctrine by defending this policy of massive tests, the abandonment of which would amount to “breaking the thermometer” .
“There were 10,453 classes closed today, that’s a lot, but at the same time it’s only 2%. We are not closing the schools or the country, ”he insisted.
The Prime Minister’s televised intervention appeared as an attempt to calm the smoldering fire among teachers and parents of students, as much as a new setback for the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, since weakened the beginning of the year.
The previous protocol, announced only the day before the return to school on January 3 in the press by Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, had been criticized for its complexity.