Spitting in the yard is one thing. Doing it in a potty with an adult watching is another. “Some are intimidated” notes Elina, health mediator of the rectorate on mission at the elementary school of the Center in Chiconi this Friday.
In this class, a student who tested positive the day before triggered the screening of all his classmates. The challenge: to keep the class open by isolating any positive cases. The particularity: the test is salivary. No nasal swab therefore, but a mollard – once is not custom -, authorized in class.
“The nasopharyngeal tests are very intrusive for toddlers” concedes rector Gilles Halbout, who is traveling to this school for the occasion. Hence the use of saliva tests. “We do them in primary schools, when we have one or more cases we carry out these systematic tests, which makes it possible to quickly isolate positive cases”, he explains. Since the start of the school year in September, several hundred classes have already been tested, but the campaign is accelerating with the Omicron variant.
“We already had these saliva test campaigns before the holidays, but less systematically, when we had suspicions of clusters. Since the start of the school year, our objective has been to be as reactive as possible and to relieve families so that they do not have to go to pharmacies or elsewhere, by carrying out these tests in schools. We have gone from a factor of 2-3 screenings in the week to more than ten today. There we have about twenty children who are tested, that is to say the whole class, because there was a positive case” continues the rector.
The only limit to this method is the capacity of the laboratory, estimated at 200 to 300 tests per day. Knowing that each class screened must be screened again a few days later, the demand increases quickly. But for the time being, the strategy holds and makes it possible to keep classes open. “We are no longer on a positive case, we are closing the class” indeed confirms the rector, who indicates however that closures take place beyond a certain threshold of positivity. “We had to close a number of classes since the beginning of the week due to positive cases. When we reach 20%, we close the class. In this case, in terms of pedagogical continuity, it is more interesting to have all the students at home than some with one modality and the others with another modality”.
Less precise, but less invasive
Over the past week, 8 classes had to be closed due to covid, two remained closed on Friday. The saliva test method therefore limits damage, while the priority is to ensure the continuity of the public school service, while limiting the impact of the tests for the students. Even if it means cutting back a little on the accuracy of the tests.
“Saliva tests are a little less sensitive than antigen tests”, indeed notes Olivier Brahic, director of the ARS of Mayotte, but they allow a certain number of cases and classes to be widely investigated, it is easier , less invasive, the risk-benefit balance is favourable. In 24 hours we have the result like a PCR, and the parents are informed immediately”, he explains.
A strategy which therefore seems to be bearing fruit for the time being, provided that the epidemic slows down, and that the parents play the game. “We must repeat the message”, adds the rector, “if we have a positive child or who has symptoms, especially we keep him at home! It’s useless to force it otherwise there’s a cluster behind it”.
And to highlight the results obtained at school level: “we are slowing down the spread, next week we will continue the same protocol and we will see if we can lighten it, especially for high school students” concludes Gilles Halbout.
Y.D.
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