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Masks, telling americans that loosely woven cloth masks provide less protection than n-95 and kn-95s. but tonight, the warning on how many of those could be fake. here's phil lipof in new york. >> reporter: tonight, covid cases surging to record highs. the u.s. reporting more than 5.5 million new infections in just one week. hospitals across the country feeling the strain. >> not only are you physically exhausted, you're mentally exhausted and sometimes your heart hurts. >> reporter: in 40 states, icus now at or above 80% capacity, levels not seen in a year. a record 158,000 americans are batt...

These, these cloth masks that we've worn for so many months. that's why we need the n-59s and here's dr. fauci on why that's important. >> they will start off with three right now. there are going to be many, many masks that are going to be produced and that will make it much more of a regular availability of it for everyone essentially, so the goal of the administration is to make as many masks as people need ultimately available to them together with a lot more testing. >> a couple of reasons why that's important. number one, you'll remember that there have been a lot of fake masks out there...

A plan to distribute masks, both of which are coming online. you guys probably should have done that six weeks ago, right? >> well, chris, we had to ramp up both. first, the testing side, it's worth remembering that when we got here, there were zero at-home tests, none, didn't exist in the united states of america. so over the course of the 11, first 11 months we were here we built up from zero to 350 million at-home tests in december. now we are taking it to the next step, we're continuing to ramp up production so that we can have this easy website where you can go get four free tests. we als...

Outcomes. or if you're indoors with people not wearing masks. high-quality masks are n-95s, kn-95s, kf-94 masks. we know cloth masks, if well fitted offer some protection as well but the high-quality masks are really the ones that are most important at this moment in time. it's one of the reasons why the administration is sending 400 million masks out. n-95 masks out to community health centers and pharmacies around the country. some of those have arrived already. we're starting to hear that from stores that have received them and they're going to start distributing them to the public. this is...

Possible area of the hospital to treat patients just like we did with delta. >> reporter: in massachusetts, in an effort to deal with the patient overload, hospitals are pausing elective surgeries. kayla st. pierre is 32 and waiting to have kidney surgery there, a surgery now considered elective. >> kayla is terrified. she's been through over 200 operations. the waiting game can be a real struggle emotionally. >> reporter: and amid this surge, the cdc now updating it's mask guidance, saying loosely woven cloth masks provide the least protection. higher quality masks, like n-95s and kn-95s, are...