On her work table, Séverine has placed her treasure of the day: two duvet covers adorned with giraffes and small cars, t-shirts and opaque tights which will be very useful to replace the elastic bands that are running out. For three weeks, this upholsterer decorator from Mayenne has abandoned the armchairs that her clients had ordered before the arrival of the coronavirus to get behind her machine and make as many masks as possible using the means available. Like her, 200 seamstresses in her department, members of the Facebook group lespetitsmasquessolidaires53, donate their time and designed no less than 7000 pieces of fabric in just two weeks.
Across France, similar initiatives have multiplied to provide caregivers, retirement homes, sometimes relatives and neighbors with enough to cover their faces to protect themselves from the virus. Thread, needles, fabric ... and above all a great surge of solidarity from the field. No choice, as France has fallen behind in the supply of masks to its population. Health Minister Olivier Véran has promised that distribution to the general public will begin soon. "They do what they can, but the account is not there then that there are masks in number for all", notes, disappointed, the writer Alexandre Jardin.
At the initiative of the novelist, more than 30,000 dressmakers will be called upon to provide this Friday, April 24 to supermarkets who will then give them to their customers at the cash desk, respecting quotas and a limited number of pieces per person.
This operation, which is based on the masquesolidaire.fr website, the Intermarché group has decided to join in, like the Carrefour group and Monoprix. "Knowing that masks have become a rare commodity, it is for us to participate in the war effort and we hope to lead other groups of mass distribution behind us," says Thierry Cotillard, the president of Intermarket. Objective: provide several million masks per day.
"We cannot expect everything from the State"
"The priority is for activity to resume in France, but for that, we need masks and society must take charge," explains Isabelle Lefort. Co-founder of the Paris Good Fashion association, which brings together sixty companies from the fashion sector, she will supply the little hands who will make these masks on a large scale with textiles. Failing to have the same filtering power as the famous FFP2, these fabric masks will respect the design rules laid down by Afnor which has published on its site a document designed by 150 experts, already downloaded 800,000 times!
VIDEO. Coronavirus: where to find the serious tutorials to make a reliable mask?
"Everyone must contribute to the building and we cannot expect everything from the State," said Olivier Peyrat, the director general of Afnor. On the platform put online by Afnor, nearly six million masks have been requested by home nurses, bakers, transporters, teachers or retirees worried about finding themselves naked in the street a once the containment is lifted.
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On Thursday, the government announced that the wearing of the mask, added to distancing measures, would be imposed on transport. "If France wanted to provide it to everyone in good conditions of use, between the nursing staff and the population, it would be a billion per week," says pulmonologist Bertrand Dautzenberg.
The government claims to distribute them today to caregivers at the rate of ... 80 million per week. "All the countries complain about lacking it and there is such a global tension that the States come to rob them on the tarmac of the airports", fulminates the doctor, who estimates that the "artisanal" productions are "infinitely better nothing. "
"We're not there yet, but this summer, when you go shopping, you can buy your mask at the supermarket between baby diapers and wipes," he persuades himself. As in Asia, taking the bus without wearing one will even seem odd to you. "
