WASHINGTON?Millions of face masks and gloves are arriving at post offices as the agency rushes to find ways to protect the public and its employees from the threat of mailed anthrax.

“We are continuing to take every possible action to protect our employees and the public, and we are doing that while keeping the mail moving,” Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan said Thursday.

“Obviously, mail is an indispensable part of our everyday life in America, and we’re just not going to give in to this terrorism,” Nolan said.

The agency ordered flags dipped to half-staff starting Thursday in memory of two Washington postal workers who died of inhaled anthrax. Several others have been sickened by inhaled and skin forms of the disease, forcing the closing of some postal facilities.

“Every person affiliated with the mail system who has gone to a hospital is being investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding of CDC. So far, she said, the “vast majority absolutely do not have anthrax.”