Jean-Michel Blanquer in particular opposes the closure of schools -

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  • This week, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer and Prime Minister Jean-Castex both opposed a school closure for the time being, despite fears of an epidemic resumption of the coronavirus.

  • At the same time, the numbers for the week are very bad and worrying, raising fears of a potential third wave, or at least a strong rebound of the second.

  • What levers do the government have to curb the circulation of the virus if it does not affect schools?

This Thursday evening, Prime Minister Jean Castex declared that it was "really necessary that the health situation be extremely serious before deciding to close the schools" because the consequences are "absolutely dramatic", between dropping out of children and impossibility of work for the parents.

The numbers on the coronavirus in recent days are not good.

This Thursday, 21,703 new cases were identified in 24 hours, or 15,271 on average per day over the past week.

Recall that initially, the goal for the deconfinement of December 15 was 5,000 cases per day.

In other words, the current situation is already serious.

If the government refuses a school closure, what other options does it have?

Small staff review.

The 6 p.m. curfew, an unconvincing option

This Sunday, Bas-Rhin, Cher and Vaucluse will also be under curfew at 6 p.m., for a total of 18 departments in France.

A measure that could be further extended?

Hélène Rossinot, specialist in public health, is skeptical.

Living in Nancy, a city affected by this worsened curfew, she notes above all "huge queues in each store since there are only two time slots to go there with work, either in the morning or during of the lunch break.

So I am not sure that this slows down the mixing of the population.

"

Especially since the curfew seems to have lost its impact on the epidemic since the closure of restaurants, bars and other places of cultivation.

“Of course, that prevents people from seeing each other between 6 pm and 8 pm, but how many law-abiding people were having aperitifs or meetings between work and 8 pm?

She asks herself, believing that those who defraud will continue to do so.

The question of the acceptability of a re-containment

As for new confinements, even localized, the specialist wonders.

How could a third confinement be accepted if the vaccination campaign does not accelerate enormously and become really massive?

“If you have a hemorrhage in your leg, you can't just get tourniquets.

We need an operation.

Vaccination is the operation.

People are going to claim it instead of a third tourniquet, ”she notes.

She takes the example of Israel in particular, where very restrictive measures and a third confinement have been put in place but made "acceptable" by a massive vaccination campaign (20% of the country's population is already vaccinated).

For epidemiology researcher Michaël Rochoy, more than confinement, it is vaccination that could be localized: "In the event of a dose shortage, we could prioritize the most affected regions, such as the East, and estimate that a Breton department where the incidence is low has less priority on vaccination to control the epidemic.

"

Better protect schools instead of closing them

Still, if the government refuses to close schools, it could review its health protocol.

And among this comes the case of school canteens, "currently the only restaurants in France open", mourns Michaël Rochoy, who recalls that places of catering have been established according to several studies as being the most highly contaminating.

In fact, it is not a question "of no longer feeding the children", as Olivier Véran joked this Thursday evening, but of looking for solutions: "In particular meals in class, or in separate places and not in the same one. commonplace, to avoid mixing between the different classes, ”argues the researcher and doctor.

Same analysis with Hélène Rossinot for whom “canteens are currently a real problem.

The government seeks to sweep it away with one hand because it considers it insoluble, but denying the problem only makes it worse.

”For Michaël Rochoy, beyond the canteens, other precautions can be taken, such as removing the moments without masks in closed places, in particular music or sports classes.

Activities they can also do outside of school, since the Christmas holidays.

What to depress the researcher even more.

The latter believes that the top priority for the government is, before thinking about what new levers to put in place, to avoid loosening others.

In particular teleworking, softened by Elisabeth Borne this Tuesday, or the possibility now for children to do sports activities indoors and without masks in extracurricular rooms.

It would already be a start.

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