Free N95 Masks Could Arrive at Local Pharmacies Friday

Pasadena Now contacted local pharmacies across the area to find out when free N95 masks would be available.

And although they have not reached the area, several pharmacies said they expected them as early as Friday.

Phones at local CVS pharmacies carried a message announcing that the masks were on the way, but were not yet available.

The masks are an upgrade from cloth facemask and heath officials say they do a better job protecting from COVID-19 transmission, including the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

In an effort to combat the variant, which has surged since the end of the year, President Joe Biden ordered 400 million of the masks be released to pharmacies.

The effort marks the most significant by the federal government effort to distribute masks during the pandemic.

There are nearly 800 million N95 masks in the Strategic National Stockpile, the White House official said.

The Omicron variant is three times more transmissible than COVID prime.

Although health officials say the numbers appear to be declining, the virus does continue to spread, and local residents are still required to follow COVID protocols.

On Wednesday, county health officials reported that the virus had claimed its youngest victim in Los Angeles County, a 15-month-old child.

The County also reported 91 new deaths on Wednesday, which is among the highest daily totals reported in the past year, raising the county’s overall virus death toll to 28,630.

The county also confirmed 20,866 new COVID cases on Wednesday, bringing the cumulative pandemic total to 2,560,768. Wednesday marked the two-year anniversary of the county’s first confirmed COVID case.

According to state figures, there were 4,534 COVID-positive patients in county hospitals as of Wednesday, down from 4,554 on Tuesday. The number of those patients being treated in intensive care was 780, a slight drop from 785 a day earlier.

The rolling daily average of people testing positive for the virus in the county was 13.6% as of Wednesday.

There 106 patients battling the virus in Huntington Hospital as of Thursday, including 19 in the hospital’s intensive care unit.