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WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration will make more high-quality masks available for free beginning next week as part of its strategy to stem the increasing tide of COVID-19 cases, President Biden said Thursday.

"We have helped make sure that high-quality masks are widely available and [in] ample supply at affordable prices ... but for some Americans a mask is not always affordable or convenient to get," the president said in a speech from the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where he was beginning a meeting with the Secretary of Defense and the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about the federal government's COVID-19 response. "So next week we'll announce how we're making high-quality masks available to the American people for free."

"I know we all wish that we can finally be done with wearing masks -- I get it," he said, noting that about one-third of Americans don't wear a mask at all. "But they're a really important tool to stop the spread, especially of the highly transmittable Omicron variant. So please, please wear the mask."

Biden also once again urged people to get vaccinated if they haven't done so already. "Because we fully vaccinated nearly 210 million Americans, the majority of the country is safe from severe COVID-19 consequences," he said. "That's why, even as the number of cases among the vaccinated Americans go up, deaths are down dramatically from last winter."

He gave as an example what happened at United Airlines once the airline issued a vaccine mandate requirement for its employees. "Before the vaccination requirement, United Airlines was averaging one employee dying a week from COVID-19," the president said. "After implementing this requirement, it's led to 99% of its employees being vaccinated. United had 3,600 employees test positive, but zero hospitalizations and zero deaths in over 8 weeks. But as long as we have tens of millions of people who will not get vaccinated, we're going to have full hospitals and needless deaths."

Biden noted that his administration is making sure healthcare workers have all the masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) they need. "Never again are we going to have our nurses using homemade masks and garbage bags over their clothing because they don't have the gowns," he said. "We've more than tripled our stockpile of the most protective, specialized N95 masks since coming into office. This is going to make sure that there will be an ample supply [for] healthcare workers and first responders." So far, 5.5 million pieces of PPE have been shipped to healthcare workers, Biden said.

He also discussed what the administration was doing to increase the availability of COVID testing. "We're seeing real improvement in testing," the president said. "When I got here, we were doing fewer than 2 million tests a day ... None of these tests were at-home or rapid tests. This month, it's estimated that we will hit approximately 15 million tests a day and we'll have over 375 million at-home rapid tests in January alone. That's a huge leap."

To increase testing further, the administration '[invoked] the Defense Production Act as early as last February to ramp up production,' he continued. "And we're on track to roll out a website next week where you can order free tests shipped to your home." In addition to the 500 million tests the administration has already promised for that program, "today I'm directing my team to procure an additional 500 million more tests to distribute for free. That will mean a billion tests in total to meet future demand. And we'll continue to work with the retailers and online retailers to increase availability."

The president added that people with health insurance can get reimbursed if they purchase up to eight at-home tests per month, and "for those without insurance, we have over 20,000 free testing sites all around the country" and are continuing to add more FEMA-run free testing sites. He also announced the appointment of Tom Inglesby, MD, of Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, to lead the federal government's testing program.

On the hospital front, the administration has deployed more than 800 military and other emergency personnel to 24 states, tribal areas, and territories; that group includes "over 350 military doctors, nurses, and medics helping staff the hospitals who are in short supply," Biden said. "This is on top of the more than 14,000 National Guard members that are activated in 49 states." FEMA also is working with states, territories, and the District of Columbia to ensure that all jurisdictions have enough hospital bed capacity.

"Today, I'm announcing our next deployment of six additional federal medical teams, a total of more than 120 military medical personnel, to six hard-hit states: Michigan, [New Mexico], New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island," he added.

The president concluded with a special plea to media outlets and social media companies. "Please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that's on your shows. It has to stop," he said. "COVID-19 is one of the most formidable enemies America has ever faced. We've got to work together, not against each other."

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