Monaco’s Life After Self-Isolation. First Princess Grace Hospital, Then Schools

The future return to a full life in the Principality is starting to unfold. Princess Grace Hospital is back to normal and many of our children are back in school, even if wearing masks. That’s a start. All eyes now on bringing more life back to the streets and in the evenings too. 

The schools have been closed since March 13th; the high schools have now reopened, first with secondary school students in grades 6 and 3, then in the coming weeks the primary grades of CP and CM2. 

Almost 90% of students of First and Final (Première and Terminale) have resumed classes to complete the school year. After two months without coming to high school, the kids are discovering there is no substitute for direct discussion with a professor, even though digital teaching remotely has made a contribution. 

Of course the organisation is different to meet the social distancing that is everyone’s new life. Each school goes about it in their own way – on the Rock the public high school prioritizes Mondays and Tuesdays for pupils of “Première”; then it is the turn of the “Terminale” students on Thursdays and Fridays. Each class is divided into two groups who come for two mornings or two afternoons, for four hours of lessons. So the teacher is able to give a lesson twice a week to each group. Each desk has to be spaced 1.50 m from the next – and luckily the canteen and a multi-purpose room provide the extra space needed. 

And other schools find neat solutions to limiting the health risks of the students moving between classes by having the school students stay in their room, and only the teachers circulating between classes.

Princess Grace Hospital 

The CHPG has now returned to an almost regular cycle of activity together with the strict application of special health rules, since the pandemic. 

Masks is are obligatory and it is advisable to avoid accompanying patients or to arrive in advance. All consultations are a available including ophthalmology. Appointments are carefully staggered. Teleconsultations are still the preferred mode where possible for many patients. The medical services are reported to have returned to a normal occupancy rate of above 80%.

Surgical cases necessitate a very detailed examination of the file by the surgeon and his team to assess the advisability of an operation. There are some cases requiring to be in intensive care, and in that case a nasopharyngeal PCR test would normally be performed.

The CHPG is now well in gear with the normal resumption of its activities but is being particularly attentive to new health guidelines in light of any risk posed by the recent viral epidemic.