U.S. Pharmacies To Get 400 Million Free N95 Masks

The Biden Administration plans to give out 400,000,000 free N95 masks over the next few weeks. The masks should be available at Green Country pharmacies later this week.

In a statement, the Oklahoma State Department of Health said, 

“The U.S. government will make 400 million non-surgical "N95" masks from its strategic national stockpile available for free to the public starting next week. These N-95 masks should be available at most local pharmacies, CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart as well as some federal government health centers. At this time, they will have to be picked up in person. The administration hopes to have the program fully operational by early February. At this time, no additional information has been provided by the Federal Government regarding the distribution.” 

News On 6 reached out to a Tulsa CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart Monday afternoon. The CVS Pharmacy at 15th and Utica said it doesn't know right now when the free N95 masks will come in, but it should know something mid-week. 

The Walgreens at 15th and Lewis told News On 6 something similar, that it was waiting on an update from corporate but that it's aware of the shipment. The Walmart on Memorial and I-244 directed us to Walmart's corporate website but our questions went unanswered. 

News On 6 also reached out to a couple of mom-and-pop pharmacies as well as Reasor's and the Tulsa Health Department.

Reasor's said it could be getting masks in a few weeks, but it won't be part of the first phase. Additionally, Brookshire is set to acquire Reasor's on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, smaller stores like Care First Pharmacy and Broken Arrow Family Drug do not have free masks, just ones you can buy. However, Broken Arrow Family Drug said it would like to give out the free ones but it doesn't know who to go through. It worked with the Tulsa Health Department to acquire COVID-19 vaccines, but the Tulsa Health Department said it hasn't heard anything from the federal government regarding the N95 rollout.

News On 6 will update this story when we learn of local pharmacies getting free N95 masks to distribute. Once those come in, each American is allowed to take home only three for free.