Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
The French government has asked police officers to hand over their face masks to medical staff due to the lack of protective equipment in hospitals during the Coronavirus crisis.
The French Ministry of the Interior asked police officers to return their masks to regional health agencies with reports stating the ministry’s stock of 1.4 million masks expected to be handed back in.
The decision has been criticised by several police unions who are demanding more masks as compensation and threatened to not carry out containment measures if they are not given the equipment.
David Le Bars, from the Union of Police Commissioners (SCPN), said: “There is a shortage of masks, and police officers are being sacrificed! “
Fabien Vanhemelryck, secretary-general of Alliance Police National, said: “We do not criticise the fact that we give our stocks of masks to the nursing staff but we do not understand that nothing is given to us to replace them”.
According to the police union, “if there is a lack of protective equipment in the services, the police will only do the really urgent missions and will no longer perform containment checks.”
Denis Jacob, from Alternative Police (CFDT), said in a statement that “there is no question of police officers continuing to work without a minimum of protection and being increasingly exposed to the contamination of COVID-19.”
In response to the trade unions, the Secretary of State for the Interior, Laurent Nunez, recalled that the masks in question “are special masks, FFP2, which are normally intended for care personnel, who work with the most serious patients, particularly in intensive care. “
He continues: “The doctrine of the government is to reserve these masks for health care workers.
“We are working with the Minister of the Interior to ensure that these policemen and gendarmes have these masks. We will make sure they are restocked and we are also thinking about innovative solutions for protection.”
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