Getting Answers: How Often Can Your N95 Or KN95 Mask Be Safely Reused?

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- Since the New Year Holiday, nearly 21 million face masks have been delivered to 51 County Boards of Education statewide. As of Tuesday, Sacramento County alone received 952,320 face masks for schools from Cal OES and more kid-size masks are expected to arrive in some districts as soon as next week.

In Sacramento City Unified School District received a shipment of N95 masks from the State Of California through the Sacramento County Office of Education last Friday. It was enough to issue 20 masks to each staff member, contracted providers, volunteers, substitute staff, and also a backup supply for on-site needs.

In addition to this shipment, SCUSD will receive KF94 masks "as soon as next week," according to a district statement. This shipment of masks is for SCUSD students and differs from the N95 masks because of the fit. The tent-like shape of the KF94 creates more space for the nose and mouth, for added comfort for younger students, too.

N95s, KN95s and KF94s — are all made with layers of high-tech filtering material that trap at least 94 to 95 percent of the riskiest particles.

Twin Rivers Unified School District Weekly Mask Deliveries

Boxes of N95 and KN95 masks and at-home COVID test kits arrived in the Twin Rivers Unified School District warehouse on Wednesday. These shipments are part of the district's plan to provide weekly shipments of masks and at-home tests for 24,000 students and 3,000 staff within TRUSD.

Using millions of dollars in COVID relief funds, TRUSD has 500,000 at-home tests on order and will be able to send 30,000 N95 masks district-wide.

"Any little bit does help, the county has been very responsive, we've been able to get their items quickly, but we can't rely on that one shipment," said Kristen Coates, Chief Business Official at TRUSD.

Coates said schools have regular delivery days for the PPE provided by the district. The warehouse is divided by delivery days and school names are marked to ensure each campus receives the right number of masks, tests, and other PPE for the campus.

Even in the weekly deliveries of masks, Coates said it will not be possible to provide every student and staff member with a new N95 of KN95 mask every day. Instead, they are also providing 1-2 surgical masks for every student and staff member, including kid-size masks.

Getting Answers: Can my student reuse their N95 or KN95 mask?

The CDC has guidelines to reuse masks, created during the pandemic to assist healthcare facilities with PPE shortages in 2020. The CDC's Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of N95 FFRs were created to help facilities conserve their PPE supply.

"If you do take off your mask, make sure you put it in a case that only holds your mask in there and as you are putting it on, only grab it by its loops, don't grab it by the duck part, or any part of here. Sanitize your hands before and after using them," said Sonya Frausto, pharmacist and owner of Ten Acres Pharmacy in Sacramento.

One of the strategies presented by the CDC is to rotate N95 and KN95 masks. After using a mask, it should be stored in a breathable paper bag with a "minimum of five days between each N95" use. This, according to the CDC's website, gives pathogens time to "die off" during storage.