While the Covid-19 epidemic is showing a rebound in France, the mask becomes mandatory again from Monday, November 8 in schools in 39 departments which had been able to remove it.

Announced by government spokesman Gabriel Attal, the return of the mask with the return of the All Saints holidays targets "the departments where the incidence rate has unfortunately stabilized above 50 per 100,000 inhabitants. ".

Are concerned in alphabetical order Ain, Hautes-Alpes, Ardennes, Aveyron, Cher, Corrèze, Haute-Corse, Côtes-d'Armor, Creuse, Drôme, Eure-et -Loir, Gers, Ille-et-Vilaine, Indre-et-Loire, Isère, Loir-et-Cher, Haute-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Lot, Lot-et -Garonne, Maine-et-Loire, Morbihan, Moselle, North, Oise, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Sarthe , Savoie, Seine-et-Marne, Deux-Sèvres, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Var, Vendée and Vienne.

"We will have to show communication and pedagogy"

If the wearing of the mask is reinstated on Monday, the other measures implied by the passage to level 2 (limitation of the mixing, conditions of organization of the sports courses ...) will however not come into force until the following Monday, a specified the government. But unions, directors and teachers expect incomprehension from some families. 

"The students will be a little disappointed. I have already asked colleagues to start Monday with a little explanation of why we put the mask back on", explains Laurent Tintet, director of an elementary school with fourteen classes in the suburbs of Pau ( Pyrénées-Atlantiques). "But it is more at the level of parents that we risk having small disputes to settle, it may be complicated with some. We will have to demonstrate communication and pedagogy", continues this director. Cautious, he had waited for confirmation of the decline of the epidemic at the start of the school year before changing the rules for the playground and school entrances.

For Guislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary school union, "these back and forth movements risk creating instability and insecurity in schools".

"A slight recovery at this stage but certain"

The government announced in September the end of wearing masks for primary school students in the departments least affected by the epidemic, where the incidence rate was less than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for five consecutive days. At the beginning of October, 47 departments had been able to remove the mask, followed by others in the following weeks. In total, the wearing of masks at school had been lifted before All Saints' Day in 79 departments. With the recent evolution, it will now have to be worn on Monday in 57 metropolitan departments and four overseas territories (Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana).   

Emmanuel Macron must speak to the French on Tuesday at 8 p.m. to take stock of the epidemic, the start of which is confirmed thanks to the drop in temperatures, a vaccination that has reached a ceiling and the relaxation observed in barrier gestures.

"In France, we are seeing a slight recovery at this stage but certain," Gabriel Attal noted on Friday.

Thursday the World Health Organization (WHO) was alarmed by the "very worrying" rate of transmission of Covid-19 in Europe.

With AFP

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