From this Monday, students and school staff can no longer wear homemade masks.

At least this is one of the new rules of the hardened health protocol to fight against the variants of Covid-19.

But in reality, the instructions are far from being clear and applied.

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In schools, a new health protocol has just been put in place to face the threat of Covid-19 variants.

As of Monday, classes will therefore be automatically closed from a single positive case with the South African or Brazilian variant.

Staff and children must also wear category 1 surgical or fabric masks, home-made masks are now prohibited.

But as Europe 1 could see this Monday morning in a school in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, the rule is not really applied.

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"With the fabric mask, you breathe better"

The majority of students in fact still have handmade masks on their faces, which are easier to bear, as explained Ibrahim, aged 10.

"With the surgical mask, when you eat the smell remains, while with the fabric mask it's not the same thing. And then, in addition, you breathe better," he explains. 

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These arguments are difficult to counter, especially since for the time being, no sanction is foreseen in the event that a child does not wear a category 1 mask. This is one of the reasons why this mother of a family decided that her son would continue to wear the one she made for him.

"It's already a little hard for me to make him wear a mask. In the morning it's always 'no he is not well', or 'no I prefer this one'. In the end it's like a piece of clothing. , he doesn't realize it's to protect him. "

No school instructions

The pupils of this Parisian establishment therefore obviously have difficulty understanding the need to wear a more filtering mask and, according to their parents, the school has not given any particular instructions about this new rule.

For the moment, neither the teachers nor the principal have verified that the children were indeed wearing Category 1 masks.