A new approach in the management of the Covid-19 pandemic will be tested in primary schools in around ten French departments, probably from Monday, October 4.
In an opinion delivered in mid-September, the Scientific Council had already recommended that screening for Covid-19 be systematic and weekly in primary school and lead to only isolating positive cases in middle and high school.
A recommendation heard by the Ministry of National Education.
Jean-Michel Blanquer spoke on this subject, Tuesday, September 28.
"We are obviously very attentive to what the Scientific Council says, and therefore, we will take this advice into account, by launching an experiment in around ten departments. The experiment consists, each time there is a case positive, to test the whole class and send home only those who are positive, "the minister said on Franceinfo.
"We will see if this really changes the situation. But therefore, it will not make a gigantic difference with what we are doing now," he added.
Currently, the protocol retained by the ministry provides that a case of Covid in a primary school class leads to a closure.
In the event of contamination at college or high school, students with unvaccinated contact cases must isolate themselves for one week.
Less than
2,000
classes closed in France
This experiment will be launched "probably at the beginning of next week," said Jean-Michel Blanquer, whose ministry has been "hard at work for many days" on it.
The test of the new protocol will begin "in various departments to be able to compare," he said.
As part of this experiment, if parents refuse the test, the child "will be considered positive precisely for not having accepted the test," said Jean-Michel Blanquer.
"This is typically one of the problems posed by this type of experiment. But we are going to do it anyway."
On the number of classes closed due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the minister indicated that it had "fallen below 2,000 closed classes, which is obviously a fairly good figure since we had gone up above 3,000, 3,500 even ".
In addition, while the obligation to wear a mask in primary school will be lifted from October 4 in the departments least affected by the epidemic, Jean-Michel Blanquer indicated that the ministry would give "the complete list of departments concerned Thursday […], so that it is valid for Monday ".
"The order of magnitude is probably between a third and half of the departments," he said.
With AFP
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