Paris (AFP)

Stolen from hospitals, claimed by doctors, requisitioned by Emmanuel Macron: protective masks are at the center of all attention at a time when the epidemic caused by the new coronavirus is intensifying in France.

At least 8,300 masks were stolen from establishments of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP). In Marseille, 2,000 were stolen from the Conception Hospital.

At the global level, the WHO has alerted to the "rapid depletion" of protective equipment.

To avoid a shortage in France, the state will requisition "all stocks and the production of protective masks" to distribute them to carers and people with coronavirus, announced Tuesday President Emmanuel Macron.

These two categories are concerned by the wearing of the mask, and not the general public, hammer the authorities since the beginning of the crisis.

However, in the eyes of the general public, the object symbolizes more than any other this health crisis, through press images or funny photos on the internet, with for example bras used as masks.

There are two types of masks. The first, surgical masks, are those that a patient must wear to avoid contaminating other people.

The others, called FFP2 (in the shape of a duckbill), are more sophisticated. They have a filtering system and are waterproof when placed on the face, to offer a higher level of protection.

Faced with the concerns of city doctors (outside the hospital), the Minister of Health Olivier Véran announced Tuesday that at this stage 15 million surgical masks had been taken from the state stock for them, as well as for Ehpad. They can collect them from pharmacies. Fifteen to twenty million others should follow, also from the approximately 145 million in stock.

But in recent days, unions of liberal doctors have demanded that FFP2 masks be urgently provided to these caregivers. They argue that surgical masks are not enough to protect doctors.

- The question of stocks -

In a decree published Wednesday in the Official Journal, the Elysée specifies that will be requisitioned until May 31, FFP2 masks held by "any legal person of public or private law" and anti-projection masks in the possession of companies that manufacture or distribute them.

Before the National Assembly on Tuesday, Mr. Véran stressed that France had "four large companies (...) which manufacture these masks, to which we have placed the most massive public orders that there is" and to whom he was asked to "operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so as to provide as many masks as possible," he said.

Important clarification: he indicated that the State did not have stocks of FFP2 masks.

According to him, a situation that dates back to 2011: after the A / H1N1 flu epidemic of 2009-2010, for which the State response had turned out to be oversized, it had been decided that "France should not make state stocks of these famous FFP2 masks. "

"What may not have been anticipated in 2011, and this is without any controversy, is that sometimes health crises can lead to industrial crises," said Véran.

In 2011, under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, the Minister in charge of Health was Xavier Bertrand.

As for the effectiveness of the various masks, the ministry's N.2, Jérôme Salomon, wanted to "reassure health professionals".

"There is a strict equivalence of surgical masks with FFP2 masks for viruses transmitted via droplets" (that is to say by the postillions of patients as is the case with the new coronavirus), he assured Tuesday evening, at a press conference.

He relied for this on a study published in September in the American medical journal Jama, which compared the protections offered by the two types of masks against the flu.

The "surgical mask, especially if it is associated with the wearing of the mask by the patient, effectively protects" health professionals, he added.

According to Mr. Salomon, FFP2 masks are above all recommended for "nursing staff who practice very specific care", that is to say those who take care of patients in close proximity to the hospital.

© 2020 AFP