Like cosmetic or clothing companies that have decided to produce hydroalcoholic gel and masks, French industry could support hospitals in the fight against the coronavirus. As the number of patients increases every day, a partnership is being studied between the only producer of respirators, Air Liquide, and PSA, the famous automobile manufacturer.

There is only one producer of resuscitation ventilators in France: the Air Liquide group. Its health subsidiary produces on its Antony site, in the Hauts-de-Seine, 500 respirators per month for hospitals. A production that is being doubled before being tripled in April and quadrupled in May, when more and more patients suffering from Covid-19 symptoms need it.

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Air Liquide's teams are also mobilized day and night, seven days a week, on around fifty sites to increase the air and oxygen storage capacity of hospitals. The company also produces oxygen cylinders, which are used when transporting patients from one hospital to another.

"We say banco"

And to continue producing even more respirators, a partnership is being studied with PSA. Like the cosmetic or clothing companies that have decided to produce hydroalcoholic gel and masks, the car manufacturer plans to set up a workshop to assemble the parts of the respirators according to Jean-Pierre Mercier, CGT delegate. "We do not yet know if it is at the Poissy factory or if it is with a subcontractor, but we are told banco," he said at the microphone of Europe 1.

"It is an essential activity, vital today, so from the moment when the maximum sanitary conditions are assured, it is obvious that we are to" assemble the parts of the respirators, continues the union representative. On the other hand, no question of resuming automobile production ... The Valenciennes site was to gradually reopen from today ... management finally had to back away from the hostility of the employees.

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