Beginning next week, the Biden administration will make 400 million N95 masks available to U.S. residents for free.
The White House announced Wednesday that the masks will come from the government’s Strategic National Stockpile, which has more than 750 million of the highly protective masks on hand. The masks will be available for pickup at pharmacies and community health centers across the country.
The masks will be available through pharmacies in the federal retail pharmacy program — which includes major grocery stores and retail pharmacy chains such as CVS and Walgreens.
“We know masks are an effective way to stop the spread of COVID-19. We are currently finalizing the operational details of this program and will provide more information once available,” a Walgreens spokesperson said in a statement.
The White House said that “to ensure broad access for all Americans, there will be three masks available per person.”
Stronger protection
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday updated its guidance on face coverings to more clearly state that properly fitted N95 and KN95 masks offer the most protection against COVID-19. Still, it didn’t formally recommend N95s over cloth masks.
The best mask “is the one that you will wear and the one you can keep on all day long, that you can tolerate in public indoor settings,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last week.
Previously, the CDC didn’t recommend that the general population wear N95 masks or KN95s, a similar type of mask made in China, fearing that demand would impact the supply in health care settings.
KN95 masks, as well as N95s, filter out at least 95% of air particles, but N95 masks have stricter pressure drop requirements and are regularly considered the “gold standard” for masking.
In addition to the free masks, the government is offering free at-home rapid COVID tests to citizens and health insurance providers are now required to cover the cost of up to eight at-home COVID-19 tests per person per month. The measures are part of the administration’s effort to curb the spike of omicron variant cases that have overwhelmed hospitals and schools.
The Associated Press and NBC4 contributed to this report
