To curb the fifth wave of Covid-19, Jean-Michel Blanquer announced the establishment of a new health protocol in schools, from Monday, November 29. The measures are intended to be more flexible, with the end of the automatic closing of classes. Already tested in several departments, the feedback is very mixed.
From Monday, primary school students will have to respect a new health protocol. And for good reason, the latest figures from Public Health France are not good. The fifth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic sets off again “dazzling”, announced Gabriel Attal, government spokesman. In schools, contamination cases exploded in a week, especially among children from 6 to 10 years old, currently not eligible for vaccination. According to the latest figures from Public Health France, as of November 15, the incidence rate had risen to 340 per 100,000 inhabitants. Unheard of since the third epidemic wave, last spring.
Faced with the more than worrying situation, the Ministry of National Education has decided to implement a new protocol in schools. More strict ? Strangely, no. The new measures have been lightened. “We are pursuing two fundamental objectives: to keep schools open while protecting the health of students and staff”, said Jean-Michel Blanquer during a press briefing.
Read also : Explosion of Covid-19 cases: 5 times more classes closed in a week in Paris
The new health protocol is only half convincing
Concretely, if a case is detected in a primary class, the latter will no longer be automatically closed. On the other hand, all the child’s comrades will have to be systematically tested. To do this, either a laboratory will come to the establishment to carry out the tests, or the parents of the students will themselves have to go and have their children tested.
These measures have already been tested. Since October, ten departments of France – Aisne, Ariège, Côte-d’Or, Landes, Manche, Morbihan, Moselle, Rhône, Val-d’Oise and the Var – have experienced it. And the returns are at the very least mixed according to The Parisian. When questioned, a school director in Cergy-Pontoise, stressed that “carrying out saliva tests on time has not always been possible because the laboratories are overwhelmed”. A mother of a student also faced other concerns: “The health technical unit of the academy was not able to move”, she confided.
However, the experiment would have made it possible toavoid the closure of 140 classes in Val-d’Oise, report our colleagues. Despite everything, a significant result.