Covid-19: 47,453 students positive since the start of the school year and 9,202 classes closed, according to the Ministry of Education – franceinfo

In a previous version of this article, published at 6:01 p.m., we indicated – on the basis of figures communicated by the Minister of National Education – that 25,000 students and 4,000 adults had tested positive for Covid-19 since Monday January 3 and that 10,800 classes were closed until Thursday, January 6. Secondly, the minister’s chief of staff provided us with updated figures, which you will find below.

The Covid-19, and more particularly the Omicron variant, disrupts the start of the school year on Monday January 3. Thursday, the Ministry of National Education counts a total of 47,453 students tested positive since Monday, from kindergarten to high school. In addition, 5,631 adults have also tested positive.

Jean-Michel Blanquer also indicated that 75,000 students and 3,000 adult contact cases were isolated over the same period. These contaminations have resulted in 9,202 class closures, all levels combined, since Monday, out of the 527,200 classes in France. 28 school structures are also closed (20 schools, six colleges and two high schools).

In addition, the ministry said it had ordered 55 million surgical masks to equip the staff of schools and educational establishments, with the first deliveries made in mid-January.

According to the new health protocol, when a student tests positive for Covid-19, the class does not close but all students must be tested three times in the following week: the first time on the day the student tests positive , a second time two days later, then a third time four days later. As long as these tests are negative, the student can return to class. With the old protocol, any positive case automatically closed the class.