Omicron continues to wreak havoc on the school benches. Less than a week after its entry into force, the new school health protocol against Covid-19, strongly criticized,
has been relaxed slightly by the Ministry of National Education, on the evening of January 6.
From now on, it is no longer obligatory for the pupils to start over the course of the three tests (D, D + 2 and D + 4) when a new positive case is confirmed in their class within a period of less than seven days. ” No. The screening cycle only restarts if the second confirmed case has had contact with the other students after a period of 7 days following the identification of the first case, ”indicates the ministry.
New directives that could relieve teachers and parents of students, faced with the increase in new daily contaminations. The latter had testified that the new health protocol was “unmanageable”. In addition, “by the end of this month” of January, surgical masks (FFP1) will be distributed “to all teaching staff”, announced Jean Castex, Thursday, specifying to await an opinion of the health authorities on an extension of the use of FFP2 masks.
More than 9,000 closed classes
Previously, elementary school students had to perform a PCR or antigen test for each new positive case confirmed in their class, followed by a self-test on D + 2 and D + 4 to find their classmates in person. Secondary school students aged 12 and over, who had a complete vaccination schedule, were subject to the same penalty. While the unvaccinated had to stay in isolation for a week. From now on, the course of these contact case students will be valid for the week, even if new positive cases are detected in the class in the days following the first case.
The number of classes closed due to the Covid-19 epidemic exploded this week to 9,202, the highest level since spring 2021, the Ministry of National Education announced Thursday.
This is more than three times higher than the previous figure, dating from December 16, before the Christmas holidays, which was 2,970 closed classes. Last April, before the schools were closed for several weeks, the number of closed classes rose to more than 11,000 (11,272 classes on April 2). It then came down again (to 5.110 at the end of May). In total, France has 527,200 classes. In detail, according to a statement from the Ministry of Education, “to date, there are 28 closed school structures (20 schools, 6 colleges and 2 high schools)”.