You can now upgrade your COVID-19 preventative face masks at your next visit to Costco, without being charged. After the January 14th CDC announcement that emphasized the better protection offered by respirators like N95s and KN95s as opposed to cloth and surgical face masks, the Biden administration made 400 million N95 masks available for free at pharmacies and community health centers across the U.S.
This effort, the White House says, is the “largest deployment of personal protective equipment in U.S. history,” as Chas Danner and Margaret Hartmann write for New York Magazine‘s Intelligencer, and one of the places you can pick up a free N-95 mask as of late, is Costco.
The multinational corporation (which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores) announced last month that its store pharmacies will distribute free N95 masks to the public, while supplies last. Adult customers are allowed to receive up to 3 of these masks in total, “to ensure broad access for all Americans,” according to a White House official.
Costco is one of many American department stores that is giving out free masks from its pharmacies— including Walmart, CVS Pharmacy, Wegman’s and others. You can grab 3 of these quality face masks for free when shopping at Costco— so head there for more information (pertaining to your local store) and get them while supplies last. (You can always also purchase as many N-95 masks as you need, as well.)
