France not planning to extend Christmas holidays due to COVID - minister

FILE PHOTO: Schoolchildren, wearing protective face masks, play in the courtyard at a private school in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes as France is seeing an increase in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases and hospitalisations, France, December 10, 2021. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

PARIS (Reuters) - French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on BFM television that the government has no plans to extend the Christmas school holidays because of the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Some European countries have brought Christmas holidays forward, and French conservative presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse has called for an extension of them in order to help ensure any infections caught over year-end holidays are discovered before children return to school.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; editing by Jason Neely)