The Biden administration will provide Americans with 400 million non-surgical N95 protective masks free of charge.
The masks will come from the Strategic National Stockpile; in total, 750 million of these respirators are now stored there. The White House said that masks will be available at some pharmacies and community centers (their lists are currently being specified) starting next week, and the full respirator distribution program will be launched by early February. Other details are still unclear: for example, what kind of masks will be provided, whether child-sized respirators will be available, whether they can be used repeatedly. But it is already known that in order to provide for everyone, they will give out three masks per person.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its recommendations again, indicating that properly fitting N95 and KN95 masks provide the greatest protection against COVID-19. However, no official ban on the wearing of cloth masks has been issued.
“The best mask is the one you wear all day in public spaces,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said last week.
The CDC also warns that there are many fakes in the country. For example, the New York City Department of Health is now forced to recall 250,000 masks that were recently distributed across the state’s regions. Of the 5 million KN95 masks sent out, 5% were found to be of “questionable quality”. They were sent to Monroe, Madison and Niagara counties – state authorities have already announced that they will replace counterfeit respirators.
You can check the mask’s authenticity and whether the manufacturer’s brand is approved by federal regulators at cdc.gov.
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White House to distribute free COVID-19 masks