The government decided on Wednesday to postpone the start of the school year to September 13 in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy, as well as in the part of Guyana in the red zone due to the "serious" health situation in cause of Covid-19, announced its spokesperson Gabriel Attal.
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Scheduled for September 2, the return to school is therefore postponed with the hope of seeing the Delta variant outbreak finally calm down in these areas.
Gabriel Attal explaining that "the beginning of a slowdown" had been observed for a few days on the spot, in particular in Martinique.
The prolonged state of health emergency
At the end of last week, Public Health France noted, however, that in the West Indies the incidence rates are "extremely high (Editor's note) respectively at more than 1,000 and around 2,000 cases against 245 per 100,000 on average in metropolitan France), saturated hospital capacities and a significant excess of mortality ”.
In addition, more than 400 additional nursing staff were dispatched last Friday to Martinique and Guadeloupe, after sending about 120 others on Tuesday.
Medical evacuations to the metropolis are still planned to try to unclog overwhelmed hospitals.
The spokesperson added, at the end of the Council of Ministers, that the state of health emergency would be extended "until November 15 in the West Indies, Guyana and French Polynesia".