New measures have been taken in the north of France to counter an acceleration in the circulation of the English variant of the coronavirus, without however ordering the closure of middle and high schools demanded by local elected officials.
• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic
In the Nord department, bordering on Belgium, “the presence of the English variant has accelerated” in the Dunkirk sector where the epidemic situation “has deteriorated sharply in recent days”, according to a press release from the prefecture on Saturday. represents the state.
The prefecture points to “an incidence rate of 515 cases per 100,000 inhabitants against 384 a week ago” in this sector where the mayors had asked the authorities on Friday to close colleges and high schools, with an exemption from compulsory education for the primary school, one week before the school holidays which normally begin on February 20 in this area.
The prefecture will postpone the arrival and exit of primary classes and operate middle and high schools in mixed mode (face-to-face / distance). Vaccination will be stepped up in Dunkirk and its surroundings.
The obligation to wear a mask in public spaces will be extended to the entire Dunkirk sector and around forty neighboring municipalities from Sunday. The prefecture recommends limiting its movements outside this zone and restricting its contacts to the family sphere.
In the east of the country, in the department very affected by COVID-19 of Moselle, on the border of Germany and Luxembourg, the prefecture announced on Saturday that schools would remain open and that there would be no local confinement for the moment, contrary to what some local elected officials were asking.
The French Minister of Health Olivier Véran, who came on Friday on Friday, announced more tests and vaccines in this department which is experiencing a high incidence of the disease with a progression of the South African variant.
Any positive test in this department will now be considered as a suspected case of the variant, with the new rules that apply (ten days isolation instead of seven and negative PCR test to get out).