The FFP2 mask is still optional in France

The criticisms emitted by some of the unions seem to bear fruit, since the French Ministry of National Education indicates Thursday that 60,000 protections to work despite an ambient air containing mutagens have been ordered. Or a 50% increase in the stock.

If the "complete picture" of the health situation in schools is not yet known, two weeks after the start of the school year, the French Ministry of National Education wants to be reassuring. In a parliamentary response published Thursday, Claude Meisch (DP), indicates that 60,000 FFP2 masks have been ordered "through the college of directors of basic education".

That is 50% more than the figure of 40,000 which was mentioned until now and criticized by part of the teachers' unions. But a little lower than the maximum stock which had been mentioned, the services of the French Ministry now installed in Clausen having assured at the end of January that 30,000 new masks had been ordered.

Although present in greater number, these protections capable of filtering at least 94% of the mutagenic particles present in the ambient air will not be distributed in a generalized manner. Only teachers of fundamental and centers of excellence "who request it" will benefit, notes the minister who reiterates his decision "not to issue recommendations on the wearing of FFP mask". A choice justified in particular by "the close collaboration with the French Ministry of Health".

Faced with the multiplication of new infections in schools before the February holidays - linked to the presence of new variants - the government has introduced the compulsory wearing of masks among schoolchildren from cycle 2. A measure generally well followed, since the French Ministry of National Education lists only twelve cases of refusal.

Finally, it should be noted that in another parliamentary response published on Thursday.

Pierre Gramegna (DP), Minister of Finance, and Franz Fayot (LSAP), Minister of the Economy, indicate that Luxembourg "does not plan to reduce the VAT rate on FFP2 masks from the normal rate of 17% to the super reduced rate of 3% ”, as Austria has done. Not only because "a reduction in VAT does not necessarily mean a drop in prices" but also and above all that a study by the Competition Council, carried out between April and May last, reports "a fall in prices. of almost all the masks analyzed ”.