On Monday, January 10th, Prime Minister Jean Castex was a guest on the 8:00 PM news on France 2 to clarify the new health protocol in schools and announce simplifications. This was an attempt to reassure and lighten the load on parents and teachers, three days before a strike call echoed throughout all school circles.
“I have heard the concerns expressed by parents, teachers, and school principals. I have come to provide them with a number of responses and simplifications,” the Prime Minister stated.
Jean Castex explained that the objective is to keep schools open as much as possible in the interest of the children. His strategy is not to close schools at the first case and to use tests as a precaution.
For this, he announced three measures of simplification and relaxation:
– The child remains in class until the end of the day.
When a positive case is detected, the closure of the entire class is not required; however, all students need to be tested. Parents are not immediately asked to come pick up their child. “We will wait until the end of the day or the school dismissal,” he specified.
– 3 self-tests for close contacts.
The second measure concerns the tests. A child identified as a close contact will still need to take three tests, but an antigen test or PCR will no longer be mandatory and will be replaced by a self-test. These self-tests are provided free of charge through pharmacies, upon presentation of a certificate from the school.
– 1 single parental certificate.
Finally, for the negative child to return to class, families will be asked to provide only one certificate indicating that the self-test is negative. This will replace the three certificates previously required for each test.
