US urges masks as dramatic steps to combat virus roll out
US urges masks as dramatic steps to combat virus roll out
![Image](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/f4b9a61/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x2001+0+0/resize/599x400!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstorage.googleapis.com%2Fafs-prod%2Fmedia%2Fc19b6d759185435a972047716c8a2706%2F3000.jpeg)
A pedestrians crosses a mostly empty Sixth Avenue during the coronavirus outbreak, Friday, April 3, 2020, in New York. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Impoverished Indians rest by their shanties at Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, during lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Mumbai, India, Friday, April 3, 2020. A nationwide lockdown announced last week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led to a mass exodus of migrant workers from cities to their villages, often on foot and without food and water, raising fears that the virus may have reached to the countryside, where health care facilities are limited. Experts say that local spreading is inevitable in a country where tens of millions of people live in dense urban areas with irregular access to clean water, and that the exodus of the migrants will burden the already strained health system. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Residents take part in an aerobics class led by city police instructing from the street below during a lockdown ordered by the government in an effort to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 3, 2020. Colombian police visit neighborhoods inviting residents to their windows or balconies to participate in an aerobics class, and encourage social distancing. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Unmasked worshippers offer Friday prayers at a mosque during a lockdown to to help stop the spread of the coronavirus in Peshawar, Pakistan, March, 3, 2020. Some mosques were allowed to remain open in Pakistan on Friday, the Muslim sabbath when adherents gather for weekly prayers, even as the coronavirus pandemic spread and much of the country had shut down. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
A worker in protective gear carries an urn of ashes of a Covid-19 deceased at the Pontes crematorium and funeral center in Wilrijk, Belgium, Friday, April 3, 2020. At the Wilrijk crematorium, near Antwerp, an extra 200 cremations due to Covid-19 have been done since the start of the week. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
A city cleaner, left, and a journalis, both wearing protective face masks, stand outside an event where Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was visiting a hospital that will be converted to receive patients suffering from Covid-19, in the Coyoacan district of Mexico City, Friday, April 3, 2020. Lopez Obrador said Thursday that sections of designated public hospitals were being isolated and prepared with an average of eight beds and respirators to care for an expected influx of patients with the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A couple in protective masks during the coronavirus outbreak walk past the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Friday, April 3, 2020. The museum has temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
People wear protective face masks on a mainly deserted street because of the government’s measures to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, in Bnei Brak, a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, April 3, 2020. By Friday, Bnei Brak had become the country’s worst hot spot and now resembles a ghost town. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A resident is removed from the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio, Friday, April 3, 2020. Officials say several residents and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at the facility. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A new facility is built behind the National Hospital for Respiratory Diseases (INERAM) to attend people who may become affected by the new coronavirus in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, April 3, 2020. COVID-19 causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis dons a mask to encourage state residents to wear them while in public as a statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect in an effort to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus Friday, April 3, 2020, in Centennial, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Funeral home workers carry a dead body from the Vitalia nursing homes in Leganes, Spain, Friday, April 3, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Washington National Guard soldiers and airmen pack food at the Nourish Pierce County warehouse in response to the coronavirus outbreak Friday, April 3, 2020, in Lakewood, Wash. National Guard members will be packing food at the warehouse five days a week for delivery to multiple food banks, taking over for volunteers who normally pack several hundred boxes a day. The need for food at the pantries in the area is expected to at least double in the coming weeks. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Two employees of CHAO coffins work at the company warehouse in Valdemoro, outskirts of Madrid, Spain, Friday, April 3, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A vendor hands over grocery to another across barriers used to seal off a neighborhood to help curb the spread of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, Friday, April 3, 2020. Sidewalk vendors wearing face masks and gloves sold pork, tomatoes, carrots and other vegetables to shoppers Friday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began as workers prepared for a national memorial this weekend for health workers and others who died in the outbreak. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A man wearing a mask to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, walks on the deserted Istiklal Street, the main shopping street in Istanbul, in Istanbul, late Friday, April 3, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
![Image](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/f4b9a61/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x2001+0+0/resize/599x400!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstorage.googleapis.com%2Fafs-prod%2Fmedia%2Fc19b6d759185435a972047716c8a2706%2F3000.jpeg)
A pedestrians crosses a mostly empty Sixth Avenue during the coronavirus outbreak, Friday, April 3, 2020, in New York. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
A pedestrians crosses a mostly empty Sixth Avenue during the coronavirus outbreak, Friday, April 3, 2020, in New York. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Impoverished Indians rest by their shanties at Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, during lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Mumbai, India, Friday, April 3, 2020. A nationwide lockdown announced last week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led to a mass exodus of migrant workers from cities to their villages, often on foot and without food and water, raising fears that the virus may have reached to the countryside, where health care facilities are limited. Experts say that local spreading is inevitable in a country where tens of millions of people live in dense urban areas with irregular access to clean water, and that the exodus of the migrants will burden the already strained health system. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Impoverished Indians rest by their shanties at Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, during lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Mumbai, India, Friday, April 3, 2020. A nationwide lockdown announced last week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led to a mass exodus of migrant workers from cities to their villages, often on foot and without food and water, raising fears that the virus may have reached to the countryside, where health care facilities are limited. Experts say that local spreading is inevitable in a country where tens of millions of people live in dense urban areas with irregular access to clean water, and that the exodus of the migrants will burden the already strained health system. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Residents take part in an aerobics class led by city police instructing from the street below during a lockdown ordered by the government in an effort to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 3, 2020. Colombian police visit neighborhoods inviting residents to their windows or balconies to participate in an aerobics class, and encourage social distancing. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Residents take part in an aerobics class led by city police instructing from the street below during a lockdown ordered by the government in an effort to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 3, 2020. Colombian police visit neighborhoods inviting residents to their windows or balconies to participate in an aerobics class, and encourage social distancing. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Unmasked worshippers offer Friday prayers at a mosque during a lockdown to to help stop the spread of the coronavirus in Peshawar, Pakistan, March, 3, 2020. Some mosques were allowed to remain open in Pakistan on Friday, the Muslim sabbath when adherents gather for weekly prayers, even as the coronavirus pandemic spread and much of the country had shut down. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
Unmasked worshippers offer Friday prayers at a mosque during a lockdown to to help stop the spread of the coronavirus in Peshawar, Pakistan, March, 3, 2020. Some mosques were allowed to remain open in Pakistan on Friday, the Muslim sabbath when adherents gather for weekly prayers, even as the coronavirus pandemic spread and much of the country had shut down. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
A worker in protective gear carries an urn of ashes of a Covid-19 deceased at the Pontes crematorium and funeral center in Wilrijk, Belgium, Friday, April 3, 2020. At the Wilrijk crematorium, near Antwerp, an extra 200 cremations due to Covid-19 have been done since the start of the week. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
A worker in protective gear carries an urn of ashes of a Covid-19 deceased at the Pontes crematorium and funeral center in Wilrijk, Belgium, Friday, April 3, 2020. At the Wilrijk crematorium, near Antwerp, an extra 200 cremations due to Covid-19 have been done since the start of the week. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
A city cleaner, left, and a journalis, both wearing protective face masks, stand outside an event where Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was visiting a hospital that will be converted to receive patients suffering from Covid-19, in the Coyoacan district of Mexico City, Friday, April 3, 2020. Lopez Obrador said Thursday that sections of designated public hospitals were being isolated and prepared with an average of eight beds and respirators to care for an expected influx of patients with the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A city cleaner, left, and a journalis, both wearing protective face masks, stand outside an event where Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was visiting a hospital that will be converted to receive patients suffering from Covid-19, in the Coyoacan district of Mexico City, Friday, April 3, 2020. Lopez Obrador said Thursday that sections of designated public hospitals were being isolated and prepared with an average of eight beds and respirators to care for an expected influx of patients with the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A couple in protective masks during the coronavirus outbreak walk past the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Friday, April 3, 2020. The museum has temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A couple in protective masks during the coronavirus outbreak walk past the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Friday, April 3, 2020. The museum has temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
People wear protective face masks on a mainly deserted street because of the government’s measures to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, in Bnei Brak, a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, April 3, 2020. By Friday, Bnei Brak had become the country’s worst hot spot and now resembles a ghost town. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
People wear protective face masks on a mainly deserted street because of the government’s measures to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, in Bnei Brak, a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, April 3, 2020. By Friday, Bnei Brak had become the country’s worst hot spot and now resembles a ghost town. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A resident is removed from the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio, Friday, April 3, 2020. Officials say several residents and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at the facility. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A resident is removed from the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio, Friday, April 3, 2020. Officials say several residents and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at the facility. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A new facility is built behind the National Hospital for Respiratory Diseases (INERAM) to attend people who may become affected by the new coronavirus in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, April 3, 2020. COVID-19 causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
A new facility is built behind the National Hospital for Respiratory Diseases (INERAM) to attend people who may become affected by the new coronavirus in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, April 3, 2020. COVID-19 causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis dons a mask to encourage state residents to wear them while in public as a statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect in an effort to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus Friday, April 3, 2020, in Centennial, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis dons a mask to encourage state residents to wear them while in public as a statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect in an effort to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus Friday, April 3, 2020, in Centennial, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Funeral home workers carry a dead body from the Vitalia nursing homes in Leganes, Spain, Friday, April 3, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Funeral home workers carry a dead body from the Vitalia nursing homes in Leganes, Spain, Friday, April 3, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Washington National Guard soldiers and airmen pack food at the Nourish Pierce County warehouse in response to the coronavirus outbreak Friday, April 3, 2020, in Lakewood, Wash. National Guard members will be packing food at the warehouse five days a week for delivery to multiple food banks, taking over for volunteers who normally pack several hundred boxes a day. The need for food at the pantries in the area is expected to at least double in the coming weeks. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Washington National Guard soldiers and airmen pack food at the Nourish Pierce County warehouse in response to the coronavirus outbreak Friday, April 3, 2020, in Lakewood, Wash. National Guard members will be packing food at the warehouse five days a week for delivery to multiple food banks, taking over for volunteers who normally pack several hundred boxes a day. The need for food at the pantries in the area is expected to at least double in the coming weeks. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Two employees of CHAO coffins work at the company warehouse in Valdemoro, outskirts of Madrid, Spain, Friday, April 3, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Two employees of CHAO coffins work at the company warehouse in Valdemoro, outskirts of Madrid, Spain, Friday, April 3, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A vendor hands over grocery to another across barriers used to seal off a neighborhood to help curb the spread of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, Friday, April 3, 2020. Sidewalk vendors wearing face masks and gloves sold pork, tomatoes, carrots and other vegetables to shoppers Friday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began as workers prepared for a national memorial this weekend for health workers and others who died in the outbreak. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A vendor hands over grocery to another across barriers used to seal off a neighborhood to help curb the spread of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, Friday, April 3, 2020. Sidewalk vendors wearing face masks and gloves sold pork, tomatoes, carrots and other vegetables to shoppers Friday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began as workers prepared for a national memorial this weekend for health workers and others who died in the outbreak. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A man wearing a mask to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, walks on the deserted Istiklal Street, the main shopping street in Istanbul, in Istanbul, late Friday, April 3, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A man wearing a mask to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, walks on the deserted Istiklal Street, the main shopping street in Istanbul, in Istanbul, late Friday, April 3, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration urged Americans to cover their faces in public and limited exports of medical supplies Friday as New York’s governor took his own dramatic step to fight the coronavirus — vowing to seize unused ventilators from private hospitals and companies.
President Donald Trump announced new guidelines that call for everyone to wear makeshift face coverings such as T-shirts and bandannas when leaving the house, especially in areas hit hard by the pandemic, like New York. But the president said he had no intention of following the advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It’s a recommendation, they recommend it,” Trump told reporters. “I just don’t want to wear one myself.”
The change comes amid concerns from health officials that those without symptoms can spread the virus, especially in places like grocery stores or pharmacies. Officials stressed that medical-grade masks should be reserved for health workers and others on the front lines of the pandemic, with critical equipment in short supply.
In one of the most aggressive steps yet in the U.S. to relieve severe shortages of equipment, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would sign an executive order to take ventilators that aren’t being used.
“If they want to sue me for borrowing their excess ventilators to save lives, let them sue me,” Cuomo said. He promised to eventually return the equipment or compensate the owners.
The move is aimed at the kind of shortages worldwide that authorities say have caused health care workers to fall sick and forced doctors in Europe to make life-or-death decisions about which patients get a breathing machine. To make matters worse, some U.S. states and cities have received essential equipment from the nation’s medical stockpile that’s broken or expired.
Cuomo says New York, the nation’s worst hot spot, could run out of ventilators next week. Louisiana’s governor said New Orleans could exhaust its supply by Tuesday.
Shortages of such things as masks, gowns and ventilators have led to fierce competition among buyers from Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere.
Trump took it further Friday, saying he was preventing the export of N95 respirator masks and surgical gloves under the Defense Production Act, a move he said was necessary to ensure that medical supplies are available in the U.S.
A regional leader in Paris described the scramble to find masks a “worldwide treasure hunt,” and the French prime minister said he’s “fighting hour by hour” to ward off shortages of essential drugs used to keep COVID-19 patients alive.
Cuomo, who has complained that states are being forced to compete against each other for vital equipment, called for a coordinated national approach that would send supplies and people to different areas as their needs peak.
The Democratic governor was praised by a hospital association for moving to seize extra ventilators, but some Republican elected officials outside New York City objected.
“Taking our ventilators by force leaves our people without protection and our hospitals unable to save lives today or respond to a coming surge,” 12 of them said in a statement.
The number of people infected in the U.S. exceeded a quarter-million, and the death toll climbed past 7,000, with New York state alone accounting for more than 2,900 dead, an increase of over 560 in just one day. Most of the dead are in New York City, where hospitals are swamped with patients.
The economic damage from the lockdowns and closures mounted. The U.S. snapped its record-breaking hiring streak of nearly 10 years when the government reported that employers slashed over 700,000 jobs last month. But the true picture is far worse, because the figures do not include the last two weeks, when 10 million thrown-out-of-work Americans applied for unemployment benefits.
Worldwide, confirmed infections rose past 1 million and deaths topped 58,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say both numbers are seriously undercounted because of the lack of testing, mild cases that were missed and governments that are underplaying the crisis.
Europe’s three worst-hit countries — Italy, Spain and France — accounted for more than 32,000 dead, or over half the global toll. The crisis there was seen as a frightening portent for places like New York, where bodies already are being loaded by forklift into refrigerated trucks outside overwhelmed hospitals.
More than 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) south, the situation grew more dire in Louisiana, where over 10,000 people have tested positive and deaths reached at least 370, up nearly 20 percent from the day before. Gov. John Bel Edwards warned that the hard-hit New Orleans area is projected to run out of hospital beds in a little more than a week.
Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge has gone from one unit dedicated to coronavirus patients to seven. Nurse Christen Hyde said nurses call families twice a day to give updates on their relatives, in some cases delivering bleak news.
“To have to call a family member and tell them that their family member is not doing well and they are probably going to be passing soon is just devastating,” said Hyde, who has had four patients die.
As for the patients, “the last thing that they see is us telling them that they are going to have a tube placed down their throat to help them breathe,” she said. “It’s awful. It’s horrible. It’s really affected me.”
Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe, with about 14,700 dead, continued seeing signs that infections and deaths might be leveling off. France reported a surge of more than 1,000 deaths Friday, bringing its overall toll to more than 6,500.
“The work is extremely tough and heavy,” said Philippe Montravers, an anesthesiologist in Paris. “We’ve had doctors, nurses, caregivers who got sick, infected ... but who have come back after recovering. It’s a bit like those World War I soldiers who were injured and came back to fight.”
Spain recorded over 900 new deaths, down slightly from the record it hit a day earlier. The carnage almost certainly included large numbers of elderly who authorities admit are not getting access to the country’s limited breathing machines, which are being used first on healthier, younger patients.
With glorious spring weather likely to tempt stir-crazy European families this weekend, the message remained, “Stay home.” Paris police set up roadblocks to stop those trying to escape for Easter vacation.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause pneumonia. Over 200,000 people have recovered, by Johns Hopkins’ count.
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Smith reported from Providence, Rhode Island, Villenueve reported from Albany, New York, and Santana reported from New Orleans. Jocelyn Gecker contributed from San Francisco. Associated Press writers around the world contributed.
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Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.