A week after the start of the school year, the health protocol is changing again in the schools.
Prime Minister Jean Castex gave the details of this "simplification" this Monday evening, on the set of the 20 Hours of France 2. These announcements were eagerly awaited by the teachers, as by the parents of pupils, who judged the race for "untenable" tests.
A call for a national strike for Thursday was also launched at the end of last week in the face of "the indescribable mess" of the measures put in place in schools to counter the rise of the Omicron variant.
Because since the start of the January 3, students must be tested three times in four days (D0, D + 2 and D + 4) if a positive case is detected in their class, a puzzle for many parents and for pharmacies taken by storm.
The protocol is also valid for high school students aged 12 and over justifying a complete vaccination - the unvaccinated must isolate themselves for seven days.
An update of the health protocol has since been carried out, preventing students from having to carry out a complete new course if a new positive case appears in their class within a period of less than seven days.
"I heard the concerns"
Relaxation announced on Monday: for case-contact students, the screening carried out on D0 can now be done using a self-test, and no longer by an antigen or PCR as requested until now, said Jean Castex on France 2.
The Prime Minister, who claims to have "heard the concerns" of parents of students and educational staff, also announced that when a positive case is detected in a class, "we will not immediately ask parents to come and look for their child (…), we will wait for the exit ”of classes.
Finally, only one screening certificate will be requested from parents, against one for each negative test so far.
11 million self-tests in pharmacies
Jean Castex also specified that 11 million self-tests would be delivered to pharmacies this week.
Why not in schools?
"If I put them in schools, I risk putting a lot of them in those that don't need them and not enough in those that need them," said the head of government.
He also defended the strategy of tests rather than that of closing classes with each positive case because, "given the explosion of Omicron, in a few days, all schools would be closed."
And the Prime Minister to point out that 10,453 classes were closed on Monday, or 2% of classes in France.
“Our strategy is not to close either the schools or the country.
But we take a certain number of precautions, ”he insisted.
