The free N95 masks offered by the Government begin to arrive at pharmacies and stores in the country

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WASHINGTON — Pharmacies and health centers across the country have begun distributing the first batches of the 400 million N95 masks the White House is giving away to combat the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus.

President Joe Biden announced last week that he would send masks from the Strategic National Stockpile, as health experts emphasized the importance of wearing high-quality masks to protect the population against the omicron variant.

“We know that these masks provide better protection than cloth masks,” Dr. Tom Inglesby, the administration's COVID-19 testing coordinator, said last week.

A factory where N95 masks are produced in Paterson, New Jersey, on January 14, 2022. BRENDAN MCDERMID / REUTERS

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the masks would be available at "thousands of pharmacies and community health centers across the country."

The agency described the effort as "the largest deployment by the Strategic National Stockpile to date" and said it "is also the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in US history."

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A White House official said a West Des Moines, Iowa, Mills Civic Hy-Vee store began distributing the masks Friday and that Hy-Vee soon hoped to have more masks available at its more than 200 stores in Iowa, Illinois. , Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

The masks were distributed with flyers encouraging people to put them on to "maximize their protection".

The Meijer supermarket chain has also received the masks and will make them available to customers in its stores in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin, according to the official.

The N95 masks will be in boxes placed on tables near Meijer receiving stations at store entrances.

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The masks are expected to begin arriving at Southeastern Grocers locations beginning Friday, and will be available at the company's Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie pharmacies.

A Walgreens spokesperson told NBC Chicago, an affiliate of our sister network, that the company expects to start handing out masks in some locations on Friday, too.

“Participating stores will have signs indicating the availability of masks,” the spokesperson said.

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Kroger, for its part, tweeted Monday that it has "free N95 masks in stores" with a pharmacy.

CVS and Walmart have said they hope to offer the masks soon.

The White House said it will limit itself to three masks per person to ensure wide access.

It is unclear how many have been distributed to date.

Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, reported late last week that they had already shipped "millions of these masks across the country, and in the next few days, they will begin to be available in pharmacies." local and community health centers.

The White House hopes to have the program fully operational by early February, in parallel with the plan to mail hundreds of millions of free home COVID-19 tests - up to four per household - to people who want them.