Schoolchildren face fraught return to class as Omicron runs amok in France

Millions of French children headed back to school on Monday without the usual knock-on effect of school holidays: lower levels of paediatric Covid-19 infections. This time Omicron is behind an unchecked viral spread among all ages in France, with an average 167,000 cases confirmed daily. A new Covid-19 school protocol released Sunday closes some glaring gaps in the fight to stem infections among children. But it also opens new opportunities, observers fear, for Omicron to run amok.