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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The New Orleans Health Department wants you to mask up – and trade up – to a mask that offers better protection from coronavirus than the cloth mask you’ve probably been wearing.

In announcing a reinstatement of the city mask mandate, Health Director Dr. Jennifer Avegno urged New Orleanians to wear an N95 or KN95 mask – the type that previously was available to health care workers only.

Those masks are now sold to the general public on Amazon, for various prices. But the city is offering them for free, two per person, at public libraries.

Isis Casanova, Public Information Officer for the Health Department, says the N95 and KN95 masks are made in the U.S. and in China, and are practically the same. The designation “95” means that the masks will block 95 percent of the airborne particles that could carry the virus.

Casanova says the masks also fit better, eliminating the gaps around the nose and cheeks that are typical flaws in most cloth masks.

Here are the libraries where the masks are available:

  • Main Library,  219 Loyola Ave., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m,, Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • Algiers Regional Library, 3014 Holiday Dr., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • Alvar Library, 913 Alvar St., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • Central City Library, Allie Mae Williams Center, 2020 Jackson Ave., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • Children’s Resource Center, 913 Napoleon Ave., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • East New Orleans Regional Library, 5641 Read Blvd., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • Hubbell Library, 725 Pelican Ave., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Keller Library, 4300 S. Broad St., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, 1611 Caffin Ave., Monday – Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Latter Library, 5120 St. Charles Ave., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • Norman Mayer, 3001 Gentilly Blvd., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • Nora Navra Library, 1902 St. Bernard Ave., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
  • Smith Library, 6301 Canal Blvd., Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.