Palm Beach County retailers got thousands of free N95 masks, but these nonprofits didn't
Almost a month after President Joe Biden promised to deliver free N95 masks nationwide, retailers in Palm Beach County have stacks of them to give away while some clinics serving the poor have yet to receive any.
CVS and Walgreens locations across Palm Beach County have boxes of the free facial coverings that provide the strongest protection against the airborne coronavirus. So do clinics run by the tax-funded Health Care District of Palm Beach County.
But several local nonprofit clinics that serve poor and uninsured people haven't heard any updates from the federal government since they requested tens of thousands of masks in January. And most Publix stores across Florida, including in Palm Beach County, have depleted their stock.
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Biden said Jan. 19 that the federal government will send 400 million N95 masks to retailers, nonprofits and clinics countrywide.
Walgreens lists stores with masks available online. Visits and calls made Wednesday to stores countywide confirmed that they had free masks in stock.
The Walgreens at 1001 N. Dixie Highway in Lake Worth Beach had a box near the entrance with a printed sign declaring in English and Spanish that each customer could take up to three masks.
Other locations had them available on request from pharmacists.
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CVS does not have a list of stores where masks are available, but staff at locations in Lake Worth Beach, West Palm Beach, Wellington, Boynton Beach and Royal Palm Beach said in person or on the phone that they still have masks.
The C.L. Brumback Primary Care clinics scattered across the county, run by the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, are also still giving away to new and current patients the 10,000 masks they received last month from the federal government.
The district does not have an estimate on how many masks it has left, and demand does not seem to have changed in the past few weeks, spokeswoman Robin Kish said.
Masks are also available in parts of the Glades.
In Belle Glade, employees at the CVS and Walgreens stores on Main Street both confirmed over the phone that they still had masks to give away. A C.L. Brumback clinic on Hooker Highway, west of State Road 15, has masks.
But in Pahokee, which has no CVS or Walgreens and is a 17-minute drive from Belle Glade, one clinic that was supposed to receive masks has none to give out.
An employee at the Florida Community Health Centers clinic on South Barfield Highway said over the phone Wednesday afternoon that they have no masks.
Why are some nonprofits not getting masks?
The federal government classifies Florida Community Health Centers as a "federally qualified health center," which typically serves poor or uninsured people.
Other such nonprofits in Palm Beach County said they had yet to receive any of the thousands of masks they ordered from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, which is in charge of delivering the N95s to organizations such as the community health centers and the county Health Care District.
Big retailers, on the other hand, have received masks through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program.
"I've heard they're overwhelmed," Genesis Community Health CEO DeAnna Warren said. HRSA has yet to update her on the 25,000 to 30,000 masks she ordered in January. HRSA representatives did not answer questions Wednesday afternoon about when some local nonprofits would receive the facial coverings.
Genesis is partnering with local charities and churches to give away the N95 masks they received from the Florida Association of Community Health Centers before Biden announced the national effort.
Another local nonprofit clinic, FoundCare, also has not heard from HRSA, CEO Chris Irizarry said. The federal agency told the clinic last week in an email that it is "still in the initial phase of implementation for the Health Center N95 Mask Program and we are working as expeditiously as we can.”
FoundCare expects to receive fewer than 1,000 masks and plans to give them to patients first.
A Publix representative said the grocery chain received shipments of the masks last week but had run out of them in most stores as of Wednesday.
"Most stores have already depleted their inventory," spokeswoman Mari Brous said in an email. "If stores had the masks available, there would be a table staffed with an associate providing three N95 masks per customer."
Free N95 giveaway locations
C.L. Brumback Primary Care clinics (click here for a map). Call 561-642-1000 for more information. Masks are for patients only.
39200 Hooker Highway, Suite 101, Belle Glade
411 West Indiantown Road, Jupiter
2151 45th St., Suite 204, West Palm Beach
1000 45th St., West Palm Beach
7408 Lake Worth Road, Suite 700, suburban Lake Worth Beach
1250 Southwinds Drive, Lantana
225 S. Congress Ave,, Delray Beach
23123 State Road 7, west of Boca Raton city limits
Genesis Community Health. Call 561-806-6835 to request an N95 mask.
Boynton Beach Medical. 709 South Federal Highway, Suite 3.
Boynton Beach Dental. 2623 South Seacrest Boulevard, Suite 112.
600 S. Dixie Highway, Suite 103, Boca Raton.
181 Crawford Blvd., Boca Raton.
Chris Persaud is The Palm Beach Post's data reporter. Email him at cpersaud@pbpost.com or on Twitter at @chrismpersaud.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: COVID: Who has free N95 masks from government in Palm Beach County?
