US set to recommend wearing of masks to stop COVID spread

Addis Ababa, April 3, 2020 (FBC) -The White House is expected soon to advise Americans living in coronavirus hotspots to wear cloth masks or scarves in public to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump said “I don’t think it will be mandatory – if people want to wear them, they can”.

Residents of New York, the outbreak’s epicentre in the US, have been urged to cover their faces in public, but not to use surgical masks.

The US death toll is at least 6,000.

New York City is the worst-hit area, with 1,562 deaths in the pandemic, Johns Hopkins University reports in its daily global tally.