Covid-19: 47,453 positive students and 9,202 classes closed in France

Published on : 01/07/2022 – 02:46

The spread of the Covid-19 epidemic is being felt in schools. The number of closed classes has exploded since the start of the school year on Monday to stand at 9,202, the highest level since spring 2021, the Ministry of National Education announced on Thursday (January 6) at the end of the meeting. a meeting with the trade unions.

This is more than three times higher than the previous figure, dating from December 16, before the Christmas holidays, which was 2,970 closed classes. Last April, before the schools were closed for several weeks, the number of closed classes had risen to more than 11,000 (11,272 classes on April 2). It then came down again (to 5,110 at the end of May). In total, France has 527,200 classes.

In detail, according to a statement from the Ministry of Education, “to date, there are 28 closed school structures (twenty schools, six colleges and two high schools)”.

Regarding contamination, the ministry lists 47,453 declared confirmed cases of pupils (against 50,052 on December 16) and 5,631 declared confirmed cases of personnel (against 2,599 on December 16).

55 million surgical masks ordered for schools

The start of the new school year has been under tension since Monday with the Omicron variant, which raises concerns about a month of January very disturbed by the risks of Covid-19 contamination, class closures and non-replaced teacher absences.

The ministry announced to the unions having “ordered 55 million surgical masks to equip the staff of schools and educational establishments, with the first deliveries from mid-January”. This follows the words of Prime Minister Jean Castex who spoke Thursday morning on BFMTV about the supply of masks to teachers by the end of January.

In addition, teachers will not be obliged to conduct face-to-face and distance training. “The face-to-face / distance teaching conditions will be specified taking into account the variety of situations, without imposing two forms of parallel teaching on teachers, but making it possible to ensure the link with absent students by reactivating all of the devices used to ensure pedagogical continuity, “writes the ministry.

The reception of the children of caregivers, when the class or establishment of their child is closed, concerns “all personnel of health establishments” but also more generally doctors, pharmacists, nurses, laboratory assistants, etc.

With AFP