School: a class will have to be closed "if there are at least three identified cases of Covid-19"

For some, it's a return to the blackboard for the first time in six months.

Hundreds of thousands of children are back to school this week, in an atmosphere weighed down by the persistence of the coronavirus epidemic.

But Christophe Delacour, president of the French pediatric society, wants to be reassuring.

No one should be traumatized to come back to a masked teacher or a teacher standing at a distance.

"Children get used to it very quickly, they have a much better ability to adapt than ours. Young people are used to seeing all adults masked now. It will not be a particular problem for them."

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"No indication to close a class for a single case of coronavirus"

Should we expect the coronavirus to break out at school?

Here again, Christophe Delacour qualifies, even if he excludes nothing.

"There are going to be cases in the classes", but that does not mean that we should be alarmed for all that.

"Our proposals are that when there is only one, this student must be isolated for him to heal. But in our eyes, there is no indication to close a class for a single case of "coronavirus.

When should we therefore consider taking more drastic measures?

"It is possible that there is a punctual closure of class, but only if there are at least three cases identified. The situation will arise but should fortunately remain very rare."

Christophe Delacour takes as proof of it "experiments carried out in the United States", where more than 600 classes were observed.

"There have been cases in less than 30 classes."

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"We must reassure" the children

The president of the French pediatric society recalls that children are not, as one might have thought at the start of the epidemic, "super-contaminators".

"The number 1 transmitter of this infection is adults. Transmissions between children, or from child to adult, are not absent but very rare. When the child becomes infected, most often it is at home level and not in community, ”explains Christophe Delacour.

"On the other hand, teachers should be aware that they are potentially a risk to classrooms and therefore it is important to wear, and wear well, the mask."

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And if your child is afraid before going through the school doors again, "you have to reassure him, tell him that this return will be done in complete safety, that children are much less exposed to Covid-19 than adults and that if they were infected, it will not become greater than another viral disease, "advises the specialist.

"This is especially true for kindergarten and primary school children. But even in middle school and high school, the disease does not take a severe form with some exceptions."