Faced with the mess, Castex relaxes the protocol

Three simple self-tests for contact cases at school, without obligation of antigen test or PCR: Jean Castex, announced on Monday a relaxation of the health protocol in the face of the Covid epidemic in schools and the risk of mayhem.

“Indeed we see these queues, I am a father, I can see what is happening”, underlined the Prime Minister in the news of 20 hours of France 2 defending “answers of simplification” while parents students and teachers have been on the fence since the start of the school year and that a strike is looming on the horizon as of Thursday.

First evolution of the protocol which comes into force on Tuesday: parents will no longer have to pick up their child immediately following they have been in contact, but at the end of the course.

Then, whereas previously, each student identified as a contact case had to immediately undergo a PCR or antigen test, now a simple self-test, which will have to be repeated on D + 2 and D + 4, will have to be carried out.

The head of government also specified that a single certificate of honor, certifying that the first self-test is negative, would be sufficient for a return in progress.

The three self-tests will be free, thanks to a certificate issued by the school. But they will continue to be distributed only in pharmacies. 11 million new kits must be delivered during the week.

While pharmacies and laboratories are crumbling under nasopharyngeal swabs, around 1.5 million each day, Jean Castex has however refused to modify French doctrine by defending this policy of massive tests, the abandonment of which would amount to “breaking the thermometer” .

The reactions of the teachers’ unions were very fresh: Guislaine David, general secretary of Snuipp-FSU, the first primary union, denounced a “total contempt vis-à-vis the teachers who are on the ground”, considering that this was “not at all going to reduce the number of contaminations at school, on the contrary (…) because a certificate on the honor of the parents is now sufficient”.

Compared to “the way in which we protect staff and students, it has not provided any response,” added Sophie Vénétitay, from Snes-FSU (1st in secondary education). For Stéphane Crochet, of SE-Unsa, “this new rule will only add tension on the ground, where the situation is already very tense”.

The Prime Minister’s televised intervention appeared as an attempt to calm the smoldering fire among teachers and parents of students, as much as a new setback for the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, since weakened the beginning of the year.

The previous protocol, announced only the day before the return to school on January 3 in the press, had been criticized for its complexity.

– “Goat” –

Denouncing “an indescribable mess” in schools and “a strong feeling of abandonment and anger among the staff”, the Snuipp-FSU had called for a national strike for Thursday, January 13, joined by most of the other teachers’ unions , SE-Unsa, Snes-FSU, Snalc, CGT Educ’action, SUD Education, FO and CFDT.

“Parents become goats”, argued for his part the vice-president of the federation of parents of pupils Peep, Laurent Zameczkowski, deploring “tests and pharmacies taken by storm”.

Jean-Michel Blanquer tried to make amends, Friday, by recognizing a protocol “extremely difficult” to live for families and, “here and there, out of stock of self-tests” in pharmacies. But the testimonies of hiccups had nevertheless been numerous for several days.

Haro versus Blanquer? The minister is – in private – criticized even within the macronie, some questioning a bravado attitude now perceived as a form of stubbornness.

And Monday night he did not escape a new volley of criticism. “After a week of cacophony and shortage, Jean-Michel Blanquer is disowned live by his Prime Minister,” lashed the boss of LR deputies, Damien Abad, while Yannick Jadot, environmental candidate for the presidential election, lambasted “default of anticipation, confusion and contempt “.

Monday evening during a trip to the Alpes-Maritimes, before the intervention of the Prime Minister, Emmanuel Macron recognized “a very difficult situation for everyone”, calling for “to show solidarity, commitment and ‘requirement”.

pab-jmt-asm-cel / cbn