By deploying 3.6 million rapid tests for elementary school students, the Quebec government wishes to preserve the return to school scheduled for January 17.
• Read also: Back to class maintained on January 17, millions of rapid tests will be distributed
• Read also: Teachers dissatisfied with Roberge’s “improvisation”
“To screen before sending young people to school, to avoid sending young people who are symptomatic and to avoid outbreaks, this is one of the factors that will allow us to make a success of the start of the school year,” said the Minister of Education Jean-François Roberge, in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
After questioning the effectiveness of rapid tests, Public Health now recommends distributing them massively in schools. A change of course that raises several questions and criticisms within the population.
Minister Roberge admits that this is not the ideal solution, but that it can only help protect students and school staff.
“PCR tests are more efficient and more accurate, but as we speak, we can no longer test everyone with PCR. We lack staff, because it requires a lot of people, it requires premises and more products, ”explains Jean-François Roberge.
“On the other hand, rapid tests, we have them in greater number and greater availability, so out of the number, we manage to capture more people before they go to class,” he adds.
In addition, the Minister of Education assures that readers of CO2 will be operational in classes deemed priority by the government. The devices began to be delivered in November, says Mr. Roberge. Some 54% of these readers will have been delivered to schools by Friday, he promised Wednesday.
As for the balance of the readers, they constitute an additional protection more than an urgent need, affirms the Minister of Education.
“We deploy it to be certain, as a layer of security, in premises that are not worrying about ventilation. So we will have a belt and suspenders, ”he says.
Regarding N95 masks, Minister Roberge considers that the blue mask remains an effective means of preventing outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools.
More of these face covers will be distributed to schools, so students can change their face masks when it gets wet, rather than being limited to two per day.