Coronavirus: Île-de-France in turn accuses the United States of intercepting masks

The president of the Île-de-France region Valérie Pécresse (ex-LR) assures this Thursday that she saw a load of masks escape her in China for the benefit of the United States, accused of late proposing amounts higher than France for orders already placed, in the midst of a global shortage due to the new coronavirus.

"We had a load taken by Americans who outbid a load that we had identified," she said on LCI. This had no financial consequences since "we never paid anything in advance". Simply "what escaped us, we could not have it, we could not place the order", she pleads.

"We pay on delivery because we want to see the masks while the Americans pay cash and without seeing, necessarily it can be more attractive for some who are just looking to do business with the distress of the whole world," he adds. she.

Valérie Pécresse on the masks: "We were confronted with this situation where Americans have outbid" pic.twitter.com/sagDkew6aj

On BFM, Valérie Pécresse later clarified that she did not want to buy blind products "with taxpayer money". "We would be exposed to having expired or damaged masks," she argues, referring to "a series of crooks who have improvised to supply masks" in times of crisis.

For its part, the United States categorically denies these accusations. "The United States government did not buy any mask that was to be delivered by China to France. The information claiming otherwise is completely false, "insists a senior official of the American administration on condition of anonymity.

" Treasure hunt "

These suspicions are not new. Already on Wednesday, the president of the Grand Est region Jean Rottner had regretted that "on the tarmac, the Americans take out the cash and pay three or four times for the orders we have made, so we really have to fight". And on Thursday, the Prime Minister of Canada asked his services to investigate press reports of masks ordered from China by Canada which were allegedly hijacked by the United States, saying he was "very worried".

"It has only been ten days since the State authorized the regions to order masks" and for ten days, "we are all on a treasure hunt, these masks that can save lives", underlines Valérie Pécresse.

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The latter is however pleased to have been able to set up "secure channels with Chinese companies which have a contract with Ile-de-France" and which will "supply us very regularly, every week, throughout this crisis "

Valérie Pécresse was able to receive in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis) 5 million masks intended for the ARS for "carers, doctors, pharmacists, nursing homes ..." but also "cities and departments which are in dire need ”.

These masks were transported by a specially chartered cargo plane because, she underlined, "it was also necessary to fight to have them delivered", while "China has suspended a large number of its flights to France" .

First distribution of regional masks: 100,000 in the Seine-Saint-Denis department and 10,000 in the city of Saint-Ouen, headquarters of the Île-de-France region. In total we reserve 420,000 masks for the Sequano-Dionysians @StephanTroussel @williamdelannoy pic.twitter.com/ke3RgnbvMH