The government will ask companies to set aside ten weeks of mask stocks for their employees to protect themselves from the risk of a second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, Secretary of State for Economy Agnès said on Wednesday. Pannier-Runacher. "We are preparing for the start of the school year and there is a risk of re-circulation of the virus (...), and we will ask companies to provide 10 weeks of mask stocks, with a little reminder that we now have French producers ", said Agnès Pannier-Runacher during a hearing by the delegation to companies of the Senate.
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She explained that she had signed "a note" to this effect, which must also be initialed soon by the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud and the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
Mask production "saved thousands of jobs"
The Secretary of State answered a question from the president of the business delegation, Senator Elisabeth Lamure (LR), who was worried about the fate of French companies having converted their production to provide masks at the height of the crisis and who are now struggling to sell their stocks. On this point, Agnès Pannier-Runacher pointed out that "if this production had not taken place, many companies would have filed for bankruptcy", because "they had no more orders".
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"This production has saved thousands of jobs and hundreds of businesses," she said. She notably put forward, without naming it, a company with a stock of 20 million single-use masks manufactured "without having a contract". "We are working to help, but I would say (...) that it is still customary to manufacture by having orders," she criticized.