Reopening of schools from May 11 worried parents, students and school staff. The Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, assured that measures would be put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, such as the limit of 15 students per class. This Thursday, it is the Academy of Medicine which published a series of detailed recommendations.
The Academy proposes to “arrange the schedules” for a reception “spaced” of the children, to ensure a spacing “of a minimum of one meter” between the class tables and “a secure arrangement of places” in the canteen.
Recreations should be organized “in small groups, if possible with the same children”, and parents and children should not be allowed to assemble at the exit.
Barrier training
The Academy also recommends “systematic and multi-daily handwashing with soap and water”, the installation of distributors of hydro-alcoholic solutions, cleaning and disinfection of the sanitary facilities several times a day, stair railings , classroom tables, door handles and teaching aids.
Before the opening, the National Academy of Medicine recommends training on barrier gestures for teachers and staff, “to relay for children”.
To quickly detect any suspected cases, she also recommends taking the students’ temperature each morning by a front thermometer, before entering the premises.
No masks for all children
Regarding masks, the Academy recommends that schools build up a “sufficient reserve of anti-projection masks (or alternative masks)”. They should be distributed to adults (teachers, staff, parents) and students from the CP, “to be worn during recreational activities outside the classroom and when leaving the school”, but not in the classroom.
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran estimated Friday that it was “very complicated” to wear masks to children and specified that there was “no scientific recommendation” in this sense. “I think that for children we must insist on barrier gestures, hand washing, coughing in the elbow,” he said.
“The reopening of schools and nurseries must be gradual and framed by strict sanitary measures,” warns the Academy. “The security measures proposed may seem insufficient or difficult to maintain by teachers and school staff if too hasty implementation neglects an essential and rigorous preparation”.
With regard to day nurseries, the Academy also recommends that one parent be placed in an entry airlock to take the baby’s temperature, and that he be sent home for fever, for medical advice. Childcare providers should also imperatively wear a mask and overcoat changed daily, and wash their hands between each infant when caring for and before preparing bottles.
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