France: It is mandatory to use a mask for primary school children

Faced with a resurgence of Covid-19 infections, France today reinstated compulsory primary school mask use across the country and stepped up border controls with Belgium.

The alert level has risen in recent days in France, where the number of new Covid-19 infections has exceeded 10,000 on average in the last seven days, according to official figures released Sunday.

All French students aged 6 to 10 will have to wear a mask from now on, and since the resumption of the school year in September the measure has been lifted in the country’s departments with the fewest infections.

The northern French prefecture has imposed more restrictive measures on people coming from Belgium since Saturday, which according to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention is one of ten EU countries in “very worrying” condition.

People coming from Belgium, other than children under the age of 12, must present a document certifying that they have completed the vaccination schedule or have a negative 24-hour PCR or antigen test.

At European level, France is classified as a “moderate concern”.

The leader of the parliamentary majority, Christoph Kastaner, said today that a new lockdown for the unvaccinated, as in Austria, is not on the table.

“The purpose, and the method we follow, are those of vaccination and booster dose,” he stressed. In a speech on November 9, President Emanuel Macron announced that the commemorative dose for those over 65 would be mandatory from December 15.

Then “620,000 appointments were made at Doctolib”, the main French online medical appointment platform, said government spokesman Gabriel Atal.

In all, on November 9, the official Santé Publique France organization counted more than 51 million French people vaccinated.

Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ