Trump: US to have 300 mln face masks by May

WASHINGTON, April 9 (KUNA) -- US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the US will have 300 million face masks by next May to provide more protection to the public from the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
"Beginning in May, we will be receiving almost 300 million new face masks. We're going to have masks of about 300 million," Trump said during the daily briefing of his Administration's coronavirus task force.
"They'll be starting to be delivered in May and during the month of June, so we're ordering a big stockpile and were thinking about doing an extra 200 million, should we need them, or for the--or for the stockpile." He pointed out that 10 drugs are now in critical trials and his administration is taking unprecedented actions to make new therapies and treatments available as soon as possible.
"Our national stockpile is now equipped with nearly 30 million hydroxychloroquine pills. We're distributing them by the millions," he said.
Later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will release further guidance to help ensure critical infrastructure workers can perform their job safely after potential exposure to the virus and so they are working on that.
President Donald Trump said it will be safe to reopen the country when "we can say we have to be on that down side of that slope." "We can do it in phases, go to some areas where - you know, some areas are much less affected than others," he said at a Wednesday coronavirus task force briefing.
"But it would be nice to be able to open with a big bang and open up our country, or certainly most of our country." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US diplomatic mission, except for the one in the Chinese city of Wuhan and the rest of diplomatic facilities around the world are all open.
"We've had a handful of our folks test positive, but we feel like we have a good handle on it, and we're doing everything we can to make sure that not just the State Department officials, but our Department of Defense colleagues that are working on these missions as well are doing so in a way that reduces risk to them and their well being." He later added that three local hires, "not US direct hires, but local people who were working for the State Department in embassies around the world," have died of coronavirus There are about 424,945 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 14,500 people have died from the disease. (end) asj.ibi