Schools closed with only 3 Covid infections, but half of France is in the red zone

After the decision to reduce the quarantine from 14 days to a week, France has also decided to soften the measures for the closure of kindergartens and primary schools: no more stops in classes if the cases of positive students to Covid-19 are not at least 3. This was announced by the French Ministry of Education, specifying that the measure will not affect middle and high schools. And this, while in the rest of the country infections continue to increase, with more than half of France now classified as a red zone, therefore at risk of lockdown.

It seems like a paradox, but the increase in cases is pushing the government and President Emmanuel Macron to seek alternative solutions to the blocking of public and private activities. Nursery and primary education centers are a good example: their closure has direct effects on the parents’ work and this worries both workers and companies. Hence the decision to soften the conditions for the interruption of classes: if a student is positive, the courses can continue for the rest of the class, no longer considered as a series of cases of potential risk.

Until now, students who had potentially been in contact with the positive child could only return to school after a negative test performed seven days after the last alleged contact with the infected partner. The protocol will be applied to identify the people who came into contact with the positive case, their possible isolation, the possible closure of a class or even an entire school with at least three confirmed cases in the same class from different families.

The kindergarten or elementary school teacher who has worn a mask and has been around a positive, unprotected student should not isolate himself. A decision that reflects the opinion of the Higher Council of Public Health of France according to which children “have a low risk of contracting serious and not very active forms of Sars-Cov-2 transmission.” In France, 89 public and private schools have been closed due to infections, out of a total of 61,500.

As we said, this measure occurs simultaneously with the increase in infections throughout the country: only in the last 24 hours, 10,569 new cases have been registered and more than half of the administrative departments in France are considered a red zone. In accordance with the ad hoc regulations drawn up by Paris, it is up to the local authorities whether to apply the total blockade or comply with the minimum prevention measures generally provided for red zones.

France is not the only EU country that fears a second wave. The most worrying case is perhaps that of Spain: here, in the Community of Madrid, some 858,000 inhabitants have returned to the confinement, although in a milder version. You will only be allowed to leave home to go to work, go to the pharmacy and to school. This confinement mainly affects the neighborhoods and municipalities in the south of the Spanish capital. The parks have been closed, shops, bars and restaurants will have to limit capacity to 50%. Meetings with more than six people are also prohibited.