In the sixteen confined departments, schools remain open …

Schools will therefore remain open in the sixteen departments subject to confinement as of Friday, March 19, 6 p.m. “As long as it is possible”, says the Prime Minister Jean-Castex. The only novelty announced: PE lessons will be able to resume ” normally “ in all departments; since January 18, they were banned indoors. “The extra-sporting activities of minors are also permitted”, said Jean Castex.

Ten weeks closed since March 2020

Since March 2020, French schools have only been closed for ten weeks, due to the epidemic of Covid-19, against thirty in Spain, twenty-six in the United Kingdom, twenty-four in Germany, fifteen in Italy or Belgium, and only six in Switzerland and Iceland.

Currently in Europe, schools are only closed in Estonia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

“In denial”

The debate on children’s contagiousness is still not decided. “Schools don’t seem to be transmission amplifiers. The circulation of the virus in schools reflects rather that which is observed within the community ”, estimated, on March 11, the Scientific Council. The school doctors’ union (SNMSU) claims the opposite: “The pupils, including those under 11 years old, are well contaminated and contaminators, they are active links in the chain of transmission, especially since the appearance of the new variants”. “As long as Jean-Michel Blanquer and the executive remain in denial concerning the role of school in transmission, we will not be able to control the epidemic”, believes Mahmoud Zureik, professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

A higher incidence rate in Ile-de-France

Who to believe? Let us say rather: what to believe? Numbers. In this case those of Public health France. In Ile-de-France, the daily incidence rate of 0-9 year olds is 6.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, which is double the national average (3.1).

In the 10-19 age group, it is 14 per 100,000 inhabitants, more than double the national average (6.6). In both cases, we are at the November level.

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