"The hour of confinement will last". Edouard Philippe repeated it again on Tuesday: one of the conditions to get out of it will probably be the general wearing of a mask. There must still be something for everyone: more than a billion and a half have been ordered. And as it is a rare commodity, the State gives itself the right to requisition orders from communities.
The least we can say is that the practice is struggling to pass.
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"We are not there to prick the masks of one or the other". Legally, the State has the right to requisition orders from communities - surgical masks or FFP2 - but on one condition, specifies the decree: the order must exceed 5 million units. So much for the rule. The problem is the way to do it. Last week, the prefecture of Grand-Est, relay of the State, requisitioned the masks intended for Bouches-du-Rhône ... without any explanation, annoys the president of the department, Martine Vassal: "I would have to receive 3.5 million masks, I received 300,000 ... without warning us, without anything. These masks were paid for with the money of the departmental council. It is necessary that with the State we are partners , we are not there to prick the masks of one or the other and to put populations in danger ".
In this plane, there was also the command of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, also seized. This region questions the logic of these requisitions when the Ile-de-France, Brittany, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes have received their orders without difficulty.
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The state regains control. This management seems in any case to illustrate a will of the State: to take again the hand on the reserves of masks. A responsibility transferred to the regions seven years ago, at the start of François Hollande's five-year term. Result: scattered, dispersed stocks, and a major difficulty: knowing the exact number of masks available on the territory.
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