It's the mask race in anticipation of the deconfinement, which will start on May 11. Region, departments, cities, businesses, citizens, everyone wants it. A boon for intermediaries but also profiteers of all kinds. Departments and cities go out of their way to offer their residents masks, in addition to those intended primarily for caregivers or community workers. It is often a headache to find the right supplier and avoid scams.
Thus the Hauts-de-Seine department, like others, has planned to provide each inhabitant with a reusable mask in approved fabric, which represents a total of 1.7 million masks.
The Ile-de-France region, chaired by Valérie Pécresse, has decided to use its purchasing center to order "30 million masks at 65 cents each".
In Essonne, the department council placed an order for 1.5 million washable masks (for a population of 1.3 million inhabitants). The bill is 6 million euros. "The President of the Republic indicated to the French that they would have masks, in support of local elected officials , recalls François Durovray, president (LR). We understood that we were in the loop, but in what way, the State still did not specify it ... Except that, since then, all the town halls receive calls from their fellow citizens to know when they will have a mask! "
The supplier puzzle
It remains to find the right supplier. “In Essonne, no manufacturing chain is possible on a large scale. And we realized that town halls had turned to questionable boxes. A black market is being formed. "
Standards in France can also slow down the arrival of these long-awaited protections. Jean-Claude (the first name has been changed), specialist in import-export with China, who has already sold tens of millions of blouses, gloves and masks to the French State and to large companies, notes: “The mask worn by people on the street in Germany is to Asian standards that we could import into France. It costs less, it is more than enough, but it does not have the CE logo. Suddenly most of our customers do not want it because it is not stamped. However, May 11 is coming soon… ”
In Seine-et-Marne, the departmental council multiplies orders and promises a mask per inhabitant for May 11 in the department which has 1.4 million inhabitants. In total, it is a question of 3.5 million masks.
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In the Yvelines, the departmental council has ordered 1.5 million masks, which will be distributed in town halls of municipalities with less than 15,000 inhabitants, on the principle of two masks per inhabitant. 200,000 must be delivered by the end of April. The cost is 2 euros per mask, or an overall bill of 3 million euros.
Departments, municipalities, urban communities…
In larger cities, it is up to town halls to equip themselves. In Poissy, for example, the mayor (DVD) Karl Olive ordered 100,000 washable and reusable masks (at 2 euros each) from a company in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône (Val-d'Oise), to equip residents .
The Seine-Saint-Denis department is awaiting a first order of 200,000 “general public” masks, washable 50 times. "We adapt to city demands," says the departmental council.
Even the agglomerations are doing it. Thus, that of Cergy-Pontoise (Val-d'Oise) which brings together 13 municipalities will provide all of its inhabitants with washable masks for general public use, ie 215,000 copies which will be made available free of charge. "They are made by an embroidery company in Hauts-de-France," says agglo.
Finally, local initiatives are increasingly emerging to meet demand. In Ris-Orangis (Essonne), the city launched its own sewing workshop. Objective: to produce 60,000 washable fabric masks before May 11th.
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