The MTA on Tuesday began installing vending machines packed with personal protective equipment at subway stations, where straphangers can buy face masks and hand sanitizer, the agency announced.
The dozen PPE machines also offer gloves and sanitizing wipes and have been rolled out at 10 stops, mostly in Manhattan, according to the MTA.
“The national increase in Covid-19 cases shows how important it is for us to maintain vigilance on use of masks and other PPE,” interim transit president Sarah Feinberg said in a statement.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for customers who may not have masks to get them so they can ride the subway. Wearing a mask is the single most important thing our customers can do to protect themselves and those around them – and more than that, it’s absolutely required to ride the system.”
Two vending machines have been placed at both the 34th Street-Herald Square and 42nd Street-Times Square.
They are also at 34th Street-Penn Station — both on the 1, 2 and 3, and A, C and E sections — as well as at the 14th Street-Union Square, 42nd Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal and 59th Street-Columbus Circle stops.
Outside Manhattan, machines have been installed at Lexington Avenue and 74th Street-Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, and the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station in Brooklyn.
Several different companies have been tapped to provide the machines as part of a pilot program.
One set of machines offers 10-packs of disposable masks for $12.49, or $1.25 per mask, an MTA rep said.
The other machines sell $5.99 reusable cloth masks, $9.99 KN95 masks, $2.25 wipes, $.75-cent single use hand sanitizer packets, $4.99 two-ounce sanitizer bottles and $6.49 kits that include a mask, hand wipes and pair of gloves.
The MTA will continue to provide hand sanitizer on platforms and free disposable masks at station booths, a spokesman confirmed.
Face masks are mandatory on the MTA’s subways, buses and trains amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Ridership has plummeted during the outbreak, but has been slowly rebounding as the city reopens.