Michigan To Provide 4M Free Masks To Vulnerable Populations

MICHIGAN — The state of Michigan is partnering with Ford Motor Company and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide over 4 million free masks to vulnerable populations, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced at a news conference Friday.

The partnership has been titled the MI Mask Aid partnership and is part of the Mask Up Michigan campaign.

"This partnership is going to save lives," Whitmer said Friday. "Wearing a mask has been proven to reduce the chance of spreading COVID-19 by about 70 percent. According to one estimate, if 95 percent of Americans wore masks between now and December 1, it would save 66,000 American lives."

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The project Whitmer announced on Friday is in partnership with her Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities, which is chaired by Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II. Gilchrist said the task force has uncovered racial disparities in the healthcare field in Michigan, where more than 90,000 cases of the respiratory illness have been reported and over 6,200 people have died.

He continued by saying he encourages regions across Michigan to create similar, localized task forces that can help address issues within their communities.

"Each action that we take on the task force has sought to make an immediate impact, as well as a long term impact for the people in our communities," Gilchrist said. "But the most immediate thing all of us can do right now is wear a mask to slow the spread of this deadly virus."

The free masks include 1.5 million from FEMA that the state has already sent to organizations that include local Community Action Agencies serving low-income residents, MDHHS offices, Area Agencies on Aging, homeless shelters and Native American tribes, the state said.

Another 1 million face coverings from FEMA and 1.5 million from Ford will go to low-income schools, the City of Detroit, Federally Qualified Health Centers, some COVID-19 testing sites and to many of the organizations.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun said several regions across the state have seen positive trends regarding the coronavirus.

"We continue to be cautiously optimistic that we are trending in the right direction as a state," she said. "But the spread of COVID-19 continues to look differently by region."

The Detroit region is at about 50 cases per million people per day, with 4.1 percent of those tests coming back positive, Khaldun said, adding that the numbers could be related to the counties surrounding Detroit; Oakland, Wayne and Monroe counties all have over 40 cases per million people per day, she noted.

"No one should have to worry about where to get a mask or how they will afford one," Khaldun said. "And that's why we're making masks easily accessibly for those who are the most vulnerable."

Anyone interested in receiving a free mask can find a distribution location by calling the COVID-19 Hotline at 888-535-6136 or looking up their local Community Action Agency online.