Biden says his administration will make free high-quality face masks available to all Americans [View all]
Source: CNN
By Kate Sullivan, Kaitlan Collins, Betsy Klein, Jeremy Diamond and Paul LeBlanc, CNN
Updated 1:02 PM ET, Thu January 13, 2022
Washington (CNN)President Joe Biden on Thursday announced his administration would make "high-quality masks" available to Americans for free, as the US struggles to contain the new surge of the Omicron variant and hospitalizations from Covid-19 reach new highs.
The President also announced his administration would purchase an additional 500 million Covid-19 tests -- on top of the 500 million tests he previously announced -- and said the website where Americans can go to get the free tests shipped to them will be rolled out next week.
"I know we all wish could finally be done with wearing masks, I get it, but they are a really important tool to stop the spread, especially of the highly transmissible Omicron variant," Biden said in remarks from the White House.
He noted that for some Americans, "a mask is not always affordable or convenient to get," and that his administration would announce more details about how it will distribute free masks next week.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/politics/biden-omicron-medical-team-deployments/index.html
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