70 new cases of coronavirus were recorded in just one week after France allowed some schools to reopen. The announcement was made by the country’s education minister on Monday.
On March 17, France closed its schools as part of the country’s attempt to help contain the coronavirus outbreak. As of Wednesday, France has recorded more than 180,000 cases and 28,000 deaths from the virus.
Following two months of lockdown, France has started lifting some restrictions. This includes the reopening of some elementary schools and preschools. France24 said that the classes were capped at 15 students for most age groups, and 10 students for preschools.
However, the Education Minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, spoke with the French radio station RTL on Monday. Blanquer revealed that within one week’s time, 70 new cases of COVID-19 appeared in the schools.
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“It’s inevitable this sort of thing will happen,” said Blanquer. “In almost all cases, this [transmission] has happened outside of the school.”
For example, he said that the 70 cases represented a small proportion of the 1.4 million children who were allowed to return to school. Blanquer said the affected schools would be closed immediately.
France, along with several other European countries, have started to lift their lockdown measures. Last month, Denmark became the first country to reopen schools. This prompted parents to voice concerns over their children being used as “guinea pigs.”
However, officials downplayed the risk to children. They say the alternative to reopening schools would be more harmful to kids.
“There will be terrible damage if we lose a generation of children who have been stopped from going to school for several months,” said Blanquer, according to The Guardian.
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Blazenka Divjak, the minister for education in Croatia, said on Monday during a press conference that European schools haven’t experienced a significant increase in cases since they reopened.
“So far, we haven’t heard anything negative about the reopening of schools, but it is probably too early to have final conclusions on that,” she said.
However, many parents of the children don’t share that same sentiment. “I won’t be sending my children off no matter what,” said Sandra Anderson, who founded a Facebook group called, “My kid is not going to be a Guinea Pig.”
The group has accumulated more than 40,000 followers.
In conclusion, it is clear that parents are worried about their children’s health. Who can blame them? Officials claim children are a low-risk group. However, there was no mention of how children could spread the virus to their household.
Time will tell. In the meantime, some parents have chosen to keep their children safe at home. You never know if a kid might need simple flu symptom relief or if it could be something more dangerous.
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