Covid-19: how to explain the increase in contamination at school?

Louise Sallé, edited by Solène Leroux 12:28 p.m., March 26, 2022

TO ANALYSE

The Covid-19 is no longer at the heart of the news, and yet the virus is gaining a little more ground every day, especially in schools in France.

More than 80,000 students and 10,000 teachers tested positive this week, twice as many as the previous week.

How do we explain these numbers?

This is mainly because the students no longer have a mask since the start of the holidays and it is a very poorly vaccinated population.

“The variant circulates more in young people than in adults who are vaccinated”, explains Jean-Paul Stahl, infectious disease specialist at the Grenoble University Hospital.

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But according to him, no reason to worry since "it is not necessarily very serious for the children themselves, who have relatively few serious forms".

According to the infectiologist, "if there is seriousness, it is because these children can infect adults who would not be vaccinated, either because they refuse it, or because they are poorly vaccinated".

Before concluding at the microphone of Europe 1: "People simply have to be vaccinated."

Concern of the teaching staff

The increase in cases at school, however, worries the heads of establishments.

Some recommend that parents and teachers put the mask back on.

This creates some tension, deplores Guislaine David.

She is the General Secretary of SNUipp-FSU.

"Families, teachers and students must be warned that these are not irreversible measures," she said.

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"There will be times when we will have to put the mask back on because the epidemic is not behind us. And we are faced with these difficulties."

As a reminder, directors do not have the right to force teachers and students to wear the mask.

Only the prefect can do this.