As California emerges from the Omicron surge and transitions to the next phase of the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services continues to work to ensure our state is ready and able to adapt to whatever may come next.
Key to this effort, is Cal OES continuous distribution of Personal Protective Equipment to schools, counties, and medical facilities across the state.
In the weeks since schools have reopened following the winter break, Cal OES has now distributed more than 38 million N95 respirators, KN95 masks and children surgical masks to county Boards of Education to be widely shared with teachers, staff, and students within their respective jurisdictions.
This latest distribution of PPE to schools, is just the latest chapter in an ongoing campaign by Cal OES to ensure that Californians have a ready supply free, convenient and safe PPE.
Since the start of the pandemic the Cal OES has distributed over 1.6 billion life-saving commodities to Californians.
The breakdown below shows some of the highlights of significant items distributed. The graphic below shows the distribution of critical supplies distributed as of February 14, 2022:
| PPE | Type Amount Distributed |
| N95s | 239,693,733 |
| KN95s | 31,586,989 |
| Children Sized Masks | 6,861,400 |
| Surgical Masks | 590,371,243 |
| Cloth Masks | 61,369,072 |
| Face Shields | 34,757,443 |
| Goggles | 4,526,412 |
| Gowns | 47,856,938 |
| Coveralls | 1,845,731 |
| Gloves | 416,261,303 |
*the chart above shows select high-volume commodities only and is not inclusive of all items that have been distributed
The state continues to fulfill orders from local county education officials for supplies each week and is filling those orders as they are submitted.
An overview of supplies distributed by county is publicly available on the state’s Covid-19 website here.
An overview of supplies distributed to schools since classes resumed after the winter break:
- Total Adult N95 Respirators to Schools Jan 1 to present: 24 million
- Total Child size surgical masks to schools Jan 1 to present: 5 million
- Total Child size KN95 Masks to schools Jan 1 to present: 6 million
These resources are available because California has built a sustainable, reliable, logistics pipeline that allows us to move from a defensive posture to an offensive one.
Even with this latest distribution, California still maintains a robust supply of hundreds of millions of pieces of PPE and other critical supplies that remain available to be rapidly deployed to communities in need.