These decisions were expected.
Once again, the government has chosen to leave schools open at all costs.
The return to school will therefore be well on January 3, announced Monday, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, at the end of a Health Defense Council and an exceptional Council of Ministers.
Olivier Véran and Gabriel Attal had already hinted at it last week.
The will of the government is "to do everything to keep schools open as much as possible", assured the government spokesperson, recalling that their closure was "a last resort".
The government is thus maintaining its strategy.
"There will be no distance learning in middle and high schools," said the Prime Minister.
The decision of the French pediatric society is unequivocal.
Such a decision would also have forced parents to stay at home, contributing to the paralysis of the economy, already disrupted by the thousands of people infected with Covid or contact cases.
A stricter protocol
However, several caregivers demanded the postponement of the start of the school year, due to a particularly important viral circulation in children and a number of hospitalizations higher than that of previous waves.
About fifty of them also published a column in the JDD this Sunday, in which they demand not only to keep the schools closed for a few more days, but also to better deploy the CO² sensors and to strengthen the health protocol.
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The government has therefore decided to rely on other measures. "We will expand our surveillance and screening policy at the start of the school year," said Jean Castex. Before the Christmas holidays, level 3 was in progress in primary schools. It involves the wearing of a mask for all students "in closed spaces and outdoors", limited mixing, especially during catering, as well as the maintenance of sports activities outdoors and "indoors for low intensity activities" allowing the wearing of the mask and the distancing.
No change either for the end of the year holidays.
Two days after the Christmas holidays which took place under almost normal conditions, the executive also wants the French to take advantage of New Year's Eve. With more than 100,000 cases of Covid-19 recorded on Saturday, the reprieve falls almost a miracle.
By midday this Monday, the idea of reliving a New Year's Eve under curfew already seemed clearly to be fading away, according to our information.
Such a measure, already applied last year, would have limited nocturnal contact.
But it "would prevent young people from partying," notes a government source.
And the latter are already deprived of nightclubs, closed since December 10.
On the other hand, the government has issued several recommendations so that the party does not turn into a massacre.
"For New Year's Eve, I renew the recommendations: let's limit the big parties and big dinners, wear the mask, ventilate the rooms, respect the barrier gestures, test ourselves, take all common sense measures", enumerated Jean Castex, specifying that a point will be made again "on the occasion of the next Defense Council convened on January 5".
