The 400 million N95 masks will be widely available and recipients will not be prioritized based on any health or demographic factors, and the Biden administration is "confident that people who want to access them will be able to access them," Inglesby told NBC News in an interview.
Providing masks and testing is part of a new administration approach to health equipment supplies beyond the current Omicron variant wave of cases, Inglesby said. The White House is "absolutely preparing" for the possibility of more coronavirus variants in the future, Inglesby added.
People could expect the US government to make N95 masks, which US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognize as offering the best protection against COVID-19, "more and more available," Inglesby said.
Distributing 400 million masks would mark the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in US history, Inglesby noted.