The Consultation Committee has opted to postpone the return to face-to-face in secondary education and wearing a mask in 5th and 6th primary. The idea of anticipating the Easter holidays by a week remains in the air. The Ministers of Education will have to decide.
Lhe Concertation Committee (Codeco), which is coming to an end, is taking a relative turn. The main options retained had been predefined Thursday evening in a small ministerial committee, the kern at the federal level, as we had indicated this Friday morning.
Codeco takes note of the worrying development in terms of contamination and hospitalizations, in particular from March 12. More precisely, Codeco notes a generalized upward trend, in contamination (from 2,359 to 3,266), hospitalizations per day (from 155 to 185), intensive care occupancy (from 426 to 543), positivity rate overall tests (from 6.5 to 7%) and the virus reproduction rate (from 0.9 to 1.2). Only the number of deaths per day is down (from 26 to 23). Regarding contamination, the most affected are now 0 to 10 year olds and 10 to 19. The Consultation Committee also notes an increase in the number of clusters in education, especially primary education. Note, however, that this statement must be qualified by the size of a cluster in this environment: this name is used as soon as a household has two cases (which is not the case in other sectors).
Return to face-to-face postponed to secondary and wearing a mask in 5th and 6th grade in primary
Consequently, the return to 100% face-to-face in secondary education, in the third and fourth years, scheduled for March 29, is postponed. The last four years of secondary school will resume full-time face-to-face lessons from April 19, with “repetitive screening” (testing) of both students and teachers.
Pupils in the fifth and sixth year of primary will have to wear the mask, in principle from Monday, March 22.
However, as we have understood, Codeco believes that maintaining education is essential for the “mental health” of young people, which is why it renounces, at this stage in any case, to take a radical measure, mentioned (and claimed) by some, regarding the closure of establishments. The Ministers of Education are however up against the wall: they are called to provide in the coming days a detailed action plan in order to thwart very quickly the phenomenon of contamination in schools. The officials gathered in Codeco also believe that it would be healthy to anticipate the Easter holidays by a week. The Ministers of Education will advise but we know that they are not very keen on this idea and that child psychiatrists reject this hypothesis with all their might.
Outdoor activities, non-essential travel, testing and transport
For the rest, the outdoor activities that should be able to resume widely from April 1 will have to wait. From March 22 (Monday), outdoor activities (sports courses, camps, etc.), without overnight stay, for children under 18 will be authorized, limited to groups of 10 people.
Non-essential travel remains prohibited until April 18.
Codeco calls for respect of barrier gestures, to operate as far as possible by teleworking, and underlines the importance of ventilation measures in closed places, in particular businesses and schools.
Finally, Codeco is relaunching a sort of major testing operation. From March 22, antigenic tests will be deployed in a targeted manner, in particular in provinces with high circulation of the virus. Targeted: functions where teleworking is not practicable. Be that as it may, this will be the case in the public sector: the police, inspection, fire, customs, post, emergency centers 112 will have priority. For the private sector, the hygiene inspectors will target companies where controls are required.
Finally, the number of seats in trains to a tourist destination will be limited, the consultation committee also decided on Friday. Except on school days, only window seats may be used in trains, except for children under 12.