Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 20. The US government said on the 19th that it will distribute 400 million N95 masks to the public from next week.
The White House said the masks were from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Strategic National Emergency Medicines Stockpile Program.
A White House official said that the federal government began distributing the masks across the country this week, and people can receive them as early as late next week; the collection locations are local pharmacies and community medical centers participating in the federal government’s new crown vaccine program; masks are distributed The project will continue until early February.
On January 4, local time, residents were tested at a new coronavirus testing station on 14th Street in Manhattan, New York, the United States.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan
"To ensure that more Americans receive masks, each person is limited to three masks," the White House said.
The White House did not specify whether the masks issued include children's models and whether they can be worn repeatedly and other details of public concern.
Since the beginning of this year, the administration led by President Joseph Biden has continued to be criticized for the inadequate allocation of epidemic prevention resources as the more contagious and mutated Omicron strain of the new coronavirus accelerates its spread.
People complained about not being able to buy or afford N95 masks, or wanting to self-test for the infection at home but unable to buy a rapid test kit.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its epidemic prevention guidelines on the correct wearing of masks on the 14th, clearly stating that wearing N95 masks and KN95 masks can provide "the most protection", the key is the right size and persistence.
"The main message we want to continue to deliver remains that wearing any mask is better than no mask," a CDC spokesman said.
At the beginning of the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, there was a shortage of N95 masks in the US medical system.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said recently that the government has stockpiled medical N95 masks for the health care system and that this stockpile will not be sold or distributed to the public.
However, Reuters quoted some medical equipment suppliers as saying that the medical supply chain is still fragile. If the American people regard wearing N95 masks as a daily requirement, there may be a shortage of such masks again, and the first to be affected are small hospitals with limited funds.
U.S. mask makers currently produce millions of N95 masks each month.
Recently, the epidemic in the United States has rebounded sharply, and confirmed cases and hospitalizations of children with new crowns have continued to surge.
Statistics released by Johns Hopkins University in the United States show that as of the evening of the 18th, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of new crowns in the United States exceeded 66 million, accounting for about one-fifth of the US population.
(Guo Qian)