While the summer vacation has already been turned upside down by the Delta variant, fall will, in turn, be watched over.
A “normal” recovery or not? More than 12 million students are heading to school tomorrow, for a new school year under close surveillance. While the health crisis remains acute and the Delta variant raises fears of a rebound in contaminations, the government wants to be reassuring and ready to adapt the measures or create new ones. Confident, the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer has thus provided for a health protocol at level 2 (out of 4) in establishments.
A protocol without a health pass
For the government, priority is given to education. The goal is, in this new school year, to minimize class closures. Unlike kindergarten, the mask therefore remains compulsory in primary school. As last June, a positive case will result in the closure of the class.
Given that children under 12 do not have access to vaccines, the State wishes to carry out 600,000 saliva tests per week in primary establishments and two self-tests per week are made available to each staff member.
From middle school and high school, contact cases will have to isolate themselves for a week if they do not have a complete vaccination schedule. If the health pass has not been introduced in schools, students who have the opportunity to be vaccinated remain strongly encouraged to do so.
The same goes for teachers. Jean-Michel Blanquer is aiming for a well-advanced school vaccination at the time of the All Saints holidays. Other measures aimed at young people have been announced, such as this partnership with Skyrock, the first radio station for those under 35. A media bus will thus be on a city-to-city tour with the slogan “How are you?” That’s it! ”.
School trips to vaccination centers will also be organized. But all these measures could quickly evolve depending on the evolution of the epidemic. This is already the case overseas, where students will not return to school tomorrow. In Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint-Barthélemy and part of Guyana, it was postponed to September 13, while the epidemic is on the rise.
Concerns persist
If the health protocol has not unleashed strong criticism, the small scale of the measures raise questions, especially in the face of the Delta variant. Parents of students are worried, for example, about the application of the protocol for kindergartens, which do not have to wear a mask, in the canteen where distancing looks complicated to respect.
Another contested announcement, the generalization in the classes of CO2 sensors. The Minister of Education declared that their cost (between 30 and 600 euros each) would be borne by local authorities. If the price is not excessive, not all of them have the means to equip themselves.
Finally, the 600,000 weekly tests for the 1st degree would not be sufficient and the fact that they are random would not allow true tracing of the virus.
In response, the government highlighted the convincing examples of Reunion Island and Mayotte, where the return to school, carried out on August 16 and 24, has not, for the moment, triggered an outbreak of contaminations. The next few weeks will therefore be crucial.