Covid-19: Jean-Michel Blanquer specifies the testing procedure for the school – archyde

Four days after the start of the school year, while the situation is described as “chaotic” in some schools, the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, maintained his line, during an inter-union meeting organized Thursday, January 6: avoid class closures based on the massive use of contact tracing and testing.

The new health protocol, announced the day before the start of the school year, is not revised but a clarification was made Thursday evening on the management of “pearly” cases, which lightens the testing procedure. When a student is in contact, he must perform a PCR or antigen test on D + 0, then two self-tests on D + 2 and D + 4. The screening cycle does not restart until after a delay of seven days if a second case is confirmed. Then all the students must retest on D + 0, D + 2, D + 4. Furthermore, sIf an unvaccinated pupil over 12 years of age is in contact with his family, he remains isolated for seven days.

Faced with the minister, the teachers’ representatives warned about the complexity of the protocol and the resulting staff exhaustion. “This protocol is untenable in the face of such an epidemic wave, denounces Stéphane Crochet, secretary general of SE-UNSA. We called for more testing at school, it’s true, but it was in a different situation. ” Parents, for their part, did not hide their exasperation this week with queues stretching in front of screening tents and pharmacies and self-tests sometimes out of stock.

“One of our concerns concerns the capacity of laboratories and pharmacies to cope with such a demand, explains Jean-Rémi Girard, from Snalc. This point was not sufficiently anticipated in view of the contagiousness of the variant. ” In an interview posted on Thursday on the Sunday newspaper, the president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France, Philippe Besset, warned about “Embolism” of the pharmacy contact case tracing system, by requesting the revision of this school protocol.

“On the ground, things don’t work anymore”

In front of the unions, Jean-Michel Blanquer assumed his strategy, while recognizing “Strong commitment” staff for ” make it work “ the system. “He gave us some ointment, while being very optimistic about the Omicron wave, reports Guislaine David of SNUipp-FSU. He asked us to hold on, telling us that everything was going to stop quickly because we were soon reaching the peak. But, on the ground, it does not work any more. “

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