Thirteen boxes holding 3,000 masks were delivered Wednesday to Georgetown University Hospital, and nine boxes holding 2,000 masks were delivered to Children's National, said Franquiz.
The masks apparently had been purchased for clergy, Franquiz said, so they could continue in the case of a health event to have protection and provide pastoral care. The cathedral will keep the remaining few.
"In these difficult and trying times, the cathedral community is doing everything we can to help protect the most vulnerable among us from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic," Hollerith said in a statement.
Some 200 people have been interred in the cathedral's crypt, including President Woodrow Wilson; Bishop Thomas Claggett, the first Episcopal bishop ordained on American soil; Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan; Navy Admiral George Dewey and Matthew Shepherd.