Covid-19: in Guadeloupe, new call to postpone the start of the school year – archyde

The rector and the prefect of Guadeloupe, who is currently experiencing a sharp upsurge in the Covid-19 epidemic, joined the elected officials of the island to ask, Monday, August 23, the government to postpone the start of the school year, which must be hold in early September. “Together, with elected officials”, the prefect, Alexandre Rochatte, and the rector of the academy, Christine Gangloff-Ziegler, “Agree to relay to the government the postponement of the start of the school year given the current health context”, they said in a joint statement. On Monday, the island had 1,610 additional people tested positive for Covid-19 since Friday and the incidence rate there reached 1,536.3 per 100,000 inhabitants.

“In view of the seriousness of the current health situation, the prefect and the rector have also expressed their concern and their commitment to work so that all health and educational guarantees are met for the return of the students to school”, add text.

The presidents of the regional council, Ary Chalus, of the departmental council, Guy Losbar, and of the Association of mayors, Jocelyn Sapotille, had asked on Saturday “That the current health context did not allow the start of the new school year on the dates initially envisaged by the State services”, the first week of September.

A postponement of the start of the school year is ” a possibility “, said government spokesman Gabriel Attal, asked about BFM-TV, Tuesday morning. “There is no decision taken for the moment”, he clarified.

More than 500 vaccinations per day

Vaccination on the island has accelerated for several days, according to the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS). ” Rhythm (…) has been increasing for a month, but for several days we have exceeded 500 vaccinations per day on this site ”, said Tony Jerpan, chief doctor of the SDIS of Guadeloupe, referent of the vaccinodrome of the airport of the island, its main vaccination center. “We even went up to 700 people”, he added. On Monday, Guadeloupe exceeded 100,000 first-time vaccines, in addition to the 20% of Guadeloupeans whose vaccination schedule is complete.

Ephemeral vaccination centers were set up on Monday by the department with the services of the regional health agency (ARS) and health professionals, in communal social action centers, or sports complexes. On August 10, the vaccination coverage rate (at least one injection) did not reach half of those over 18 with 31.34%, according to a press release from the ARS and the prefecture.