Biden administration to deliver 25M masks to health centers
In an effort to fulfill President Biden’s goal of having all Americans wear face masks through his first 100 days in office to limit the spread of COVID-19, the White House announced Wednesday that it plans to deliver more than 25 million masks to communities hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense will begin distributing the “high-quality” cloth masks to approximately 1,300 community health centers as well as 60,000 food pantries and soup kitchens next month, the White House said in a press release.
Anyone living in these communities will be eligible to pick up the free masks and will be encouraged to take an individually wrapped package of two for each person in their household. An estimated 12 to 15 million Americans will receive masks, the White House said.
The cost of the program, which will continue through May, will be $86 million, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday.
Zients said that the plan is part of the administration’s “equity strategy.”
"Not all Americans are wearing masks regularly, not all Americans have access and not all masks are equal," Zients said. "With this action, we are helping to level the playing field, giving vulnerable populations quality, well-fitted masks."
The initiative, he added, will not impact availability of masks for health care workers.
On his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order requiring face masks to be worn by federal employees at all government agencies. The next day, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a sweeping mask mandate requiring they be worn by all travelers on airplanes, trains, buses and ride-shares, and at transportation hubs including airports, bus or ferry terminals, and train and subway stations.
Under President Donald Trump, a push by the CDC to mandate masks in transit was blocked and the agency instead only issued strong recommendations encouraging masks when social distancing was not possible. Trump also rejected efforts by Congress to mandate mask use.
____
Read more from Yahoo News:
