Trump Says Ordered 1000 Medical Military Personnel Deployed to New York City Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Sputnik News

20:41 GMT 04.04.2020(updated 21:17 GMT 04.04.2020)

A total of 300,915 COVID-19 infections have been reported in the US, and at least 8,162 people have died from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University.

US President Donald Trump said that 1000 military personnel are deploying to New York City amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. He said that it would be the medical military and that "we might add to the thousand".

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have ordered production of 180 million masks, working with the 3M company, he also said at a press briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the United States on Saturday.

Donald Trump also added that the members of the Coronavirus Task Force are working with hospitals and distributors to make sure that priority is given to those with the highest need. He stressed that 29 million doses of anti-malarial drugs are to be stored in the national strategic stockpile for COVID-19 patients.

The number of COVID-19 deaths would be on the rise this and next week, he said.

"This will be probably the toughest week, between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done, but there will be death", Trump told reporters at the briefing.

According to the president, areas of the country which do not have big outbreaks are asking the federal government for more help than they need.

As of 4 April, the number of coronavirus cases nationwide has reached 277,205, with the death toll standing at almost 6,600, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. According to Johns Hopkins University dashboard, the US has registered near 302,000 cases.

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