Louise Sallé and Manon Fossat 2:17 p.m., February 08, 2022

Contaminations and class closures remain at a high level but mark a "small downward trend" in the words of Jean-Michel Blanquer last week.

The government therefore wishes to lighten the health protocol in force in schools.

He received the unions on Tuesday to discuss several avenues.

The health protocol linked to Covid-19 in schools should be lightened after the February holidays, given a drop in indicators, said Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer on Friday.

This Tuesday noon, the unions were received at the ministry to discuss a reduction in the measures.

And several avenues are being considered by the executive.

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Towards the end of the three self-tests?

Starting with the lifting of the wearing of the mask.

Many parents are indeed complaining about it, but teachers remain skeptical of the risk of contamination which is still high in the classrooms.

For the majority unions, this relaxation is therefore premature.

Lifting the wearing of masks during recess could be a possible compromise.

The modification of the rule of three self-tests for contact cases is also on the table.

Many families admit that they do not respect it and it is also a headache for the teachers.

The three tests to be carried out on D0, D+2 and D+4 could therefore be reduced to just two tests.

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Finally, the third relief concerns the return of children's mixing.

When a teacher is absent, the pupils could be welcomed back into the other classes of the school and no longer sent home.

Indoor sport could also be reinstated.

All these reductions will be specified by the Minister of Education during the week and they should come into force from the start of the school year after the February school holidays, zone by zone, that is to say from Monday, February 21. for area B.

“Switch back to something close to the flu”

Invited to Europe Midi on Tuesday, Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist and Covid-19 referent medical director at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches, considered that these potential reliefs are good news.

“I think that everything is good to take in a policy where we are heading, we hope, towards collective immunity. We will therefore have to rethink the testing strategy in general, and including in children”, a- he asserted.

“We reasonably underestimate the circulation of the virus and in reality, today we are managing to move towards something that smoothes out as being an end to the crisis. And I think that we have to completely rethink the indicators and switch back to something close flu."

For the infectiologist, if it is difficult to judge the good timing or not of this relief, it is obviously necessary to outline a way out of the crisis.

“What is certain is that the mathematical models estimate that at the end of March, we will be in a more favorable situation in the hospital, with a significant reduction in hospitalizations and a resumption of those which have been deprogrammed. With the Omicron wave, the risk of ending up in the hospital, especially for vaccinated people, is much lower. And that allows us to change gear," he explained before continuing.

"We must congratulate ourselves for moving for once towards an optimistic scenario rather than a pessimistic scenario from the outset."