Council of State – Compulsory self or rapid test for teachers and students

Compulsory diagnostic (self test) or molecular test (rapid test) are required to be submitted by teachers of primary and secondary education as well as students according to a decision of the Council of State.

In particular, by decision of the Board of the Council of State, it was decided definitively and irrevocably that the disputed health measures taken by the contested Joint Ministerial Decision are aimed at “addressing compelling public health reasons, in terms of epidemiological reasons and for the health of children, following the recommendations of committees by experts, in whose scientific judgment the mandatory diagnostic test is a preventive measure, appropriate and necessary, in combination with the already existing public health measures to create maximum safety conditions during the reopening of teaching units in pandemic conditions “.

The Supreme Court of Cassation had been appealed to by the parents of 62 students and teachers of primary and secondary education who were against the relevant JMC for the implementation of the mandatory diagnostic test (self test) or the molecular test rapid test (PCR) of COVID-19 disease for their entry. in schools.

According to the reasoning of the decision, these measures “are part of the public health policy to deal with the pandemic and strengthen the existing diagnostic strategy, so as to enable the gradual removal of the most serious restrictions that were in force during the third wave of the pandemic and for the restoration of the socio-economic life of the country under conditions of security and major epidemiological vigilance, in view of the outbreaks of the disease, the continuous mutations of the virus and the limited percentage of vaccination coverage of the population “.

The State Councilors also emphasize in the decision that the purpose of the mandatory diagnostic tests is to “address the serious threat to public health from the spread of highly contagious and increased mortality in vulnerable groups of the population, by an unknown and incurable disease, as well as strengthening the resilience of the national health system in order to cope with the unprecedented health crisis caused “.

It is recalled that the decision in the application for suspension, which had also been submitted by the applicants on the same issue, was also rejected.