Automatically screen children and send them home if they are positive for Covid-19, this is what the Scientific Council recommends, in an opinion that has not been communicated to the public.
Last Saturday in the newspaper Le Monde, the experts of the Scientific Council recommended a sanitary protocol which sows the trouble : systematically detect cases of Covid-19 in schools, and isolate positive children at home. A method that goes against that adopted by the Ministry of National Education since the start of the school year.
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Inclusive writing in school programs, Jean-Michel Blanquer decided
This Wednesday, a Defense Council will be held on the alleviation of certain constraints, concerning schools. Could the advice of these experts be a game-changer? According to government spokesperson Gabriel Attal, “The whole issue is, how do we keep tools that have proven their worth (…) and that have made it possible to keep activities open, and, moreover, how we adapt them” he says this Sunday.
Since the start of the school year, it is expected that a single case of Covid in a primary class is enough to cause a closure. 3,000 classes have been in this case since the return to school. In middle and high school, only students who find themselves in contact and who are not vaccinated, must isolate themselves for a week and work their lessons remotely. The main idea is to keep the classes open as much as possible, but the experts of the Scientific Council persist and claim the usefulness of screening.
Towards systematic screening?
According to experts, systematic screening remains the method which allows the safest access to classes and which could avoid “sorting”, a difference between pupils who are vaccinated and those who are not. Nevertheless, the screening would be based on the voluntary work of the pupils, and the consent of the families. According to the Scientific Council, contaminations in minors could represent up to 35% of infections and 5% of hospitalizations over the coming weeks.