The United States government jumpstarts the distribution of free high-quality N95 masks to the public this week in its efforts to curb the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
According to Amy Simmons Farber, spokesperson for the National Association of Community Centers, 100 centers will participate in the program's initial rollout. The program will begin incrementally, providing N95 masks to around 100 to 200 health centers in its initial stages, per CNN.
The organization expects the health centers would start distributing the masks "before the end of January 2022."
Meijer announced on Monday that more than 250 groceries and pharmacies throughout the Midwest had received around 3 million masks.
Where To Get Free Masks?
The company said the N95 masks would be inside boxes on a table near the Meijer Greeter stand of the grocery entrance.
Kroger stores with pharmacies will also participate in distributing masks throughout its Midwest and Southwest outlets. According to company spokesperson Kristal Howard, the first batch of N95 masks will arrive on Thursday.
Walgreens is also going to join the dole out of protective masks. Its spokesperson Scott Goldberg informed NPR that the masks would be available starting on Friday.
According to its spokesperson Matt Blanchette, CVS Pharmacy will also be giving away free N95 masks in its locations in the coming weeks.
How Many Mask Can One Get?
The HHS flyer that was distributed along with the free masks indicated that every person in the US could get up to three masks. Pharmacies consider monitoring the number of masks that people take to ensure that they get just the allocated number.
According to Hy-Vee, so far, there have been no problems with people trying to get extra masks at their locations.
Christina Gayman, the spokesperson for Hy-Vee, said that each of their stores had designated employees to give away three masks per person.
"We haven't had an issue with people attempting to take more than the limit of three provided by HHS. Additional N95 masks are also for sale at our pharmacy locations if people want/need more," Gayman mentioned in her email.
Due to the limited number of N95s allocated to each person, users may need to prolong the lifespan of the personal protective equipment.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), N95 masks should not be worn more than five times. But Anne Miller of nonprofit Project N95 has some tips. You can think of the five wearings as eight-hour days, totaling 40 hours of wear - so a 20-minute trip to the shop counts as 20 minutes off the 40-hour lifespan of the mask.
Project N95 helps communities acquire personal protective equipment, COVID-19 diagnostic tests, and other important medical supplies, per Vox.
The other way to extend the life of N95 masks is what the CDC and other experts recommend. It is called the "brown bag decontamination method."
Miller suggests you could store an N95 in a breathable paper bag for one week to kill off the viral particles that stick on it. And then reuse it.