Covid: new measures to follow mass screening campaign?
Monaco Government
The Prince’s Government has published the results of the screening campaign in the Principality.
The post-holiday season campaign involved 4,946 Covid tests in schools and 4,480 tests delivered to the public administration. In total, the Government had ordered 60,000 self-tests so that each member of the population could make sure that they had not contracted the coronavirus during the end-of-year break.
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Of the 4,946 self-tests carried out in schools, 97 tested positive for Covid (77 students and 20 members of staff). The number of potentially positive cases in the public administration is not known, as the principle of responsibility applies for people who test positive.
Private employers can order a self-test for each of their employees and residents can also be tested free of charge. Priority is given to people who display symptoms or are considered to be “contact cases”. Self-tests can also be purchased from pharmacies in Monaco or in supermarkets until January 23, 2022.
Tougher measures to come?
But these precautions will probably not be sufficient to stem the unprecedented Covid wave that is sweeping through Monaco and France. The Minister of State, speaking to Monaco Info on Monday, January 3, declared that the situation remained very alarming.
“We will have to strike a balance between our objective of protecting the population and that of maintaining the economic activity that is essential to the Principality’s prosperity. (…) I will be making recommendations to that effect to the Sovereign in the next few days, “said Pierre Dartout, currently in quarantine for having contracted Covid over the holidays.