Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld says the transit agency now has one million masks to give to riders. The announcement comes more than 10 weeks since the agency first received a shipment of face coverings and announced its plans to distribute them.

In late July, Metro said it had 500,000 masks from the U.S. Department of Transportation. But while some Metro police and station managers have given riders masks, the face coverings have generally been hard to find.

On the Politics Hour on WAMU Friday, General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said distribution is beginning now. It took a while because the masks arrived unwrapped in a bulk shipment.

“We had an issue of people handling them (safely),” he said. “So we physically had to in effect, wrap each one of those … you can imagine the time it takes to do that.”

In the meantime, the feds sent an additional 500,000 masks to WMATA, which will be distributed along with the original shipment. Metro also had plans to dispense hand sanitizer in stations, but that initiative hasn’t happened yet either.

Many riders have argued that masks should be provided if passengers are required to wear them. Several other transit agencies around the country, including Montgomery County’s Ride On locally, have provided masks to riders.

Metro has required masks on board since May, but one caller to the Politics Hour told Wiedefeld there’s been spotty use on her 79 route bus and “the drivers didn’t do or say anything.”

Wiedefeld said Metro bus operators aren’t tasked with enforcing the policy.

“This a community issue. We all need to do our part,” Wiedefeld said. “It’s very frustrating, but we have to get the community basically to do the right thing … We don’t want to be the mask enforcement police.”

A Metro survey said universal mask use was one factor that would make riders feel more comfortable coming back to the system. Metro has posted several signs and other messages throughout the rail and bus system encouraging mask use.

Metro ridership has been historically low during the pandemic, though it has crept back up recently. This week, Metrorail ridership was down about 85-90% compared to the same week in 2019. Metrobus ridership was down about 60%.