As smoke from Canadian wildfires covers a wide swath of New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on NY1 that 1 million N95 masks will be made available for New Yorkers Thursday.

“We think that the N95s are important right now. We encourage people to use that,” she said.

According to the state, masks will be made available at Grand Central Terminal, at Penn Station, at the Fulton Center, at Jamaica Station in Queens, on the main concourse of the south wing of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, at Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park in Harlem and at Roberto Clemente State Park in the Bronx.

There will be an additional 600,000 masks available at stockpiles around the state for local governments to pick up.

Hochul added that MTA buses and trains “already have high-quality air filtration” and “are safe ways to get around the city.”

“It’s the worst air quality New York has seen in over 20 years,” Hochul said, referring to the advisory as a “health and environmental crisis.”

In response to criticism that officials responded too late, Hochul said her team has been giving reports on the air quality for the last four or five days.

“We’ve been getting the warning out there,” she said. “And we know many people actually do have a supply of masks in their home, but we decided we’d make these available.”

When it comes to outdoor dining, Hochul encouraged business owners to take precautions and encourage more indoor dining.

“The situation for people sitting outside is not safe,” she said. “We encourage business owners to take precautions.”

“This is a temporary situation. This is not COVID,” she added. “So people shouldn’t be anxious about this. So it won’t have anywhere near the same impact as COVID did. As soon as we get some good rain and the wind blows this out of the way, we’ll be in a much better place,” Hochul added.

Hochul said the state offered assistance to the Canadian government to send up members of the state’s firefighter teams.

Hochul said it was possible that the air quality could get better by Sunday or Monday, but added that it is still unclear.

“You can see projections, but to know anything with certainty, we just can’t say right now,” she said.

When asked if she expected the air quality to get this bad across the city, especially since her team has been monitoring the situation for several days, Hochul said “there was a dramatic change in what occurred, no doubt about it.”

“When the (air quality) numbers went up 800% (over what is considered safe) in 24 hours, that is something that was, it’s challenging, and we’re just trying to, again, let people know that this is temporary, but is a very serious health situation.”

Hochul said her staff has been in constant communication with Mayor Eric Adams’ staff about the events across the city.

“As soon as we get some good rain and the wind blows this out of the way, we’ll be in a much better place,” Hochul added.

Hochul said the state offered assistance to the Canadian government to send up members of the state’s firefighter team.

Hochul said it was possible that the air quality could get better over the weekend, but added that it is still unclear.

“You can see projections, but to know anything with certainty, we just can’t say right now,” she said.

When asked if she expected the air quality to get this bad across the city, especially since her team has been monitoring the situation for several days, Hochul said “there was a dramatic change in what occurred, no doubt about it.”

“We’ve been preparing. We’re ready. We’ve been getting out the warnings literally for five days now,” she said. “When the number went up 800% in 24 hours, that is something that was, is challenging, and something that we’re just trying to, again, let people know that this is temporary, but it’s a very serious situation.”