Free N95 masks are being delivered now, but they’ve been hard to find around metro Atlanta. Channel 2 checked Kroger, Publix, Walgreens and CVS locations along a stretch of Roswell Road on Monday and could not find one for free or for sale.
“I’m not yet frustrated, but we’ll see,” said Risa Matthew, who was out looking for a mask at CVS. “My search is not over.”
Kroger’s regional office confirmed to Channel 2 Action news that every Kroger store in the state should have gotten their delivery of N95 masks by the end of the day Monday.
The free masks will be given away in packs of three per customer and placed in a highly visible and high traffic area of the store. A pharmacist from Kroger said to look for them in a circular container next to the pharmacy or clinic and beside the customer service area.
Deanna McEwen, who works in the Athens area, also expects them to go quick.
“It is a one-time shipment, so once the supply is gone, the supply is gone and will not be able to reorder them,” she said.
Walgreens says stores have started to receive shipments in a first wave of deliveries, but all stores should have supply by mid-February. They have a list on their website of which locations have masks, and in Georgia the total is only 19 stores, and none in the immediate metro Atlanta area.
CVS says they’ll have N95 masks at nearly 9,800 pharmacy locations where vaccines are being administered, including locations within Target.
“Inventory has begun arriving at these locations and will continue on a rolling basis as additional supply becomes available,” the company said in a statement.
Publix stores have yet to receive any shipments, and a spokesperson in an email said, “We are awaiting further information on delivery schedules to determine when the masks will be available for distribution in our stores.”
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