Tiasha Tabassum: French schoolchildren again returning home just after a week of going back to school. 70 new COVID-19 cases have been documented connected to the schools. The government opened the school to ease the current lockdown last week. But the new cases linked to school have proven their decision wrong. This reopening of schools has put a lot of children in danger of contamination.
Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said the affected schools are shuttered immediately. However, it is unknown if the cases were among students or teachers. As the virus incubation period is several days it is unlikely to be affected after reopening school, claimed Blanquer. According to him they were affected before the schools opened last week. To avoid further contamination the government has allowed parents to keep their children at home safely.
Although there have been many individual cases no major outbreaks related to the reopenings have been reported. According to Worldometers, France has 181,575 people infected with the coronavirus and 28,132 deaths till now.
In neighbouring Germany, schools are slowly opening considering different perspectives for the last two weeks. France is reopening junior high schools in regions less affected by the virus in the following week. Paris does not fall under this safe ‘green’ region. School authorities are instructed to take the highest precautionary measures.
