With the Omicron variant, some are worried about a possible shortage of anti-Covid tests in the face of the influx of requests. The hiccups on the health protocol at school, which now provides for self-tests to be given to parents whose child is in contact, have only reinforced this fear. Government spokesman Gabriel Attal, during a visit this Friday to a health product distribution warehouse in Saint-Ouen in Seine-Saint-Denis (Ile-de-France), therefore assured that he there would be no lack of self-tests.
“The stocks are coming, they are in number, 11 million have been delivered this week and they will continue to be delivered” to pharmacies, he said, acknowledging “difficulties” at the start of the Omicron wave. To meet demand, when a new record of 12 million tests per week was reached last week, “the State stock of Public Health France of self-tests has been destocked”, he announced. to the press.
Ongoing dialogue after the strike in National Education
For Gabriel Attal, the government is maintaining the “course” in the face of Covid-19: “keeping the country open”, “keeping schools open”, despite the multiplication of contaminations. For this, the relaxed health protocol now asks students with contact cases to produce three negative self-tests, without the obligation of an antigenic or PCR test, to continue going to class, as Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Monday.
This relaxation was not enough to prevent a massive strike Thursday in National Education to denounce in particular the lack of consultation on the part of the government. Following the mobilization, the unions were received on Thursday evening by the Prime Minister, the Minister of Health and the Minister of National Education. A “continuous dialogue will now take place between representatives of educational personnel and the government with the Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Health, twice a month”, assured the government spokesperson.