The Biden administration today confirmed officials will make available and free to the public 400 million N95 respirators to be distributed at community health centers and pharmacies across the country.The news follows yesterday's launch of a website through which Americans could order up to four free COVID-19 tests.
The respirators will be sent out beginning later this week.The N95s come from the Strategic National Stockpile and are known to filter out 95% or more of airborne particles when fitted properly.
Early in the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discouraged the use of respirators by the public because they were in short supply for medical personnel.The CDC updated that guidance earlier this week, saying that Americans should wear the most protective masks or respirators available to them.The CDC Nowcast estimates that the Omicron variant accounts for 99.5% of new COVID-19 cases in the United States, and because it is more transmissible than previous variants, mask mandates are once again being put in place in cities across the country.Almost 1 million pediatrics casesFrom Jan 6 to Jan 13, more than 981,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States, according to the latest weekly update from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), marking a 69% increase from the previous week."Reported child COVID-19 cases among children have spiked dramatically across the United States.
The past week nearly 1 million cases were reported, four times the rate of the peak of last winters' surge," the AAP wrote.The United States reported 1,060,747 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, and 1,896 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracker.The 7-day average of new daily cases is