As more French pupils go back to school this Monday, 70 new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in infant schools, which partially reopened last week. Several schools, in various parts of the country, have had to close again.

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer says the kids probably caught the virus before returning to school on 11 May and insists that the closures show that “we are strict”.

Collèges, whose pupils are aged between 11 and 15, partially reopen today in green zones of low infection rates.

Of the 25 clusters found last week, some in green zones, two large ones are in slaughterhouses, reinforcing international concern that abattoirs are particularly prone to infection.

Plus de cent cas de Covid-19 détectés dans deux abattoirs français https://t.co/OyOT2cg06R

— Le Monde (@lemondefr) May 17, 2020

More than 100 workers have tested positive – 63 in a slaughterhouse in Brittany, 34 in another near Orléans.

More cases may be found in the latter, since the 400 employees are to be tested today and tomorrow. Officials say that the required precautions – hand gel, temperature taken on entry – seem to have been observed.

There have been a number of cases in meat-packing plants in the US and Germany, leading to concerns that they are particularly vulnerable to the virus.

The authorities in the two French regions have launched investigations.

In general the signs a week after lockdown are relatively good.

Although the number of deaths went over 28,000 on Sunday, there have been no more than 700 new cases recorded on any given day, way below the 3,000 that Prime Minister Edouard Phlippe said would lead to him confining us to our homes again.

The number of people infected by a carrier is 0.6, below the one per carrier that indicates epidemic, and testing has become more widespread over the last week with only 2% proving positive.

But the virus’s incubation period is seven to 14 days, so the experts say we have to wait a week before breathing a sigh of relief (through our face-masks, of course).

Is anybody else worried about a Trump coup after the US presidential election?

Here’s the scenario: Assuming the election isn’t called off because of a second wave of Covid-19 and assuming Biden wins, despite being a terrible candidate and despite the possibility that the economy will pick up if the virus subsides, will Trump accept the result?

Isn’t he likely to declare there was fraud and that he actually won? Neither he nor his hard-core supporters are constrained by the requirement of proof for an assertion they want to believe, so hundreds of thousands of hard-right fanatics could be mobilised to support his claim.

As we have seen in the anti-lockdown demos, those die-hards come largely from the enraged petite bourgeoisie, the classic base of fascist movements, with the all-American ideology of an SUV-driving Calvinist elect, entitled to unlimited consumption, but convinced of their own victimhood.

Some of them are armed and able to march into seats of government unhindered.

What would the Democrats do if they did so across the country in the aftermath of the election results?

What would the police and the army do? Would generals and police chiefs order the dispersal of these militias, using arms if necessary?

Would the ranks obey those orders if they came? Would they split more or less on racial lines?

So what would happen? Civil war? A coup, followed by pogroms and purges?                                                                                                                                       

The US is showing the symptoms of an empire in decline. But none of its leaders show any sign of accepting the loss of world hegemony, Trump least of all. How would he face up to China’s rise if he returned to power?

Back to France. The official Covid-19 death toll now stands at 28,108, 483 in the past 24 hours. 19,361 people are in hospital, 71 down yesterday, and 2,087 in intensive care, down 45. 61,213 people have been discharged from hospital, 147 yesterday.