France to produce 100 million sanitary masks per week in December - France 24

Paris (AFP)

France will be able to produce 100 million sanitary masks (surgical and FFP2) per week in December and is no longer dependent on China, Minister Delegate for Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher said on CNews on Tuesday.

"We produce 50 million sanitary masks per week", said the minister, assuring that the objective of a capacity of 60 million in October will be held.

And "we will be at 100 million sanitary masks -FFP2 and surgical- in December," she continued. "We have therefore multiplied by 30 our production of sanitary masks."

"We are no longer dependent on China," added the minister, because France can rely on its national production and on European production. "If China closes, we are able to cope," she summed up.

"The point of difficulty today" are "the gloves", the manufacture of which depends on the supply of latex, noted the minister.

Besides sanitary masks, France has also developed its production of textile masks which are "cheaper" and "with regard to the Covid, also effective", underlined Ms. Pannier-Runacher.

The cost of using a washable and reusable textile mask is "less than 10 cents" and "a lot of French people use them", she insisted.

The Minister for Industry recalled the implementation this summer of the distribution of 50 million masks "to the most vulnerable families from a financial point of view".

With regard to companies, she estimated that the additional cost of health measures can reach 10% to 15%, which is "not negligible".

But "it is not for the State to take the place of business leaders in relation to these costs," said Pannier-Runacher, who considers that "the market economy is also about paying true costs ".

Asked about the postponement of one week of the announcement of the recovery plan, Agnès Pannier-Runacher stressed that this plan is "already decided" and that it is "implemented in the industrial part".

"There is no wolf, there is just the need to prepare well for the start of the new school year", she said, also citing "the return to school also professional".

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