In a 1st, Trump dons mask in visit to a army health care facility By Reuters

By Steve Holland

BETHESDA, Md. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump, who has averted sporting a mask in general public even as the coronavirus pandemic distribute, donned a person on Saturday at a armed forces medical facility exterior Washington in which he was to satisfy with wounded soldiers and entrance-line wellness-care workers.

The go to to Walter Reed Countrywide Armed forces Health care Center marked Trump’s first public visual appearance with a deal with covering given that the virus began sweeping across the United States previously this year.

Trump had formerly refused to dress in a mask in general public or ask other Us citizens to do so, stating it was a own alternative, whilst he experienced said he would if he was in a group and could not sustain distance from others.

“I consider when you are in a clinic, specifically in that unique placing when you are conversing to a whole lot of soldiers, people that in some cases just got off the working table, I imagine it’s a fantastic issue to don a mask,” Trump instructed reporters at the White House just just before his visit to Walter Reed.

At the health care facility, Trump walked by media collected for a thoroughly staged photograph opportunity sporting a navy blue mask emblazoned with a presidential seal embossed in gold. He said only “thank you” as he passed.

Leading public overall health officers have urged the use of masks to slow the unfold of the virus, which by Friday had claimed practically 134,000 American life. Critics say Trump’s refusal to dress in one particular showed a absence of management.

Even as other officers in his administration named for the use of masks and social distancing, Trump, who faces re-election in November, pressured states to reopen shut economies.

But due to the fact several states calm coronavirus restrictions, the virus has identified a new toehold. New U.S. cases of COVID-19, the respiratory ailment prompted by the novel coronavirus, rose by more than 69,000 on Friday, a 3rd straight day by day history.

As of Friday, the selection of confirmed U.S. infections topped 3 million, according to a Reuters tally.