Coronavirus: Trump says US lacks medical equipment to deal with cases across country

Dow Jones Industrial Average suspends trading amid more huge losses with president in White House briefing room

Donald Trump acknowledged the United States lacks enough medical equipment to deal with the expected total number of coronavirus cases, saying he will activate the presidency's powers to obtain more of those items.

The US leader again struck a mostly somber and serious tone during what has become his near-daily press conference, though he did contend unnamed polls show him beating "Sleepy Joe Biden" in a hypothetical general election race after the former vice president won three more primaries Tuesday night and moved closer to the Democratic nomination. The president continued to say he believes the now-staggering US economy will quickly bounce back, and pushed back at reporters' questions about whether there are enough test kits to go around.

The president announced at a midday press conference that he is invoking the Defence Production Act, a move aimed at expanding the supply of key medical supplies and equipment to fight the outbreak.

Vice President Mike Pence said the country has at least 10,000 ventilators at civilian facilities, with the Pentagon poised to provide 7,000 more. "We're ordering a lot more," Mr Trump added without providing a specific figure.

Mr Trump tried to shoot down a report that his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, told lawmakers on Tuesday that unemployment could reach 20 per cent during the outbreak, calling it "an absolutely worst case scenario."

"I disagree with that," he said with a shake of his head as service industry workers already are being laid off and are suddenly out of work.

As always, the president gave himself and his public health team a rhetorical pat on the back, saying: "We're doing a really good job. ... When you compare this with other epidemics ... nobody's seen anything quite like this."

But Mr Trump's words did nothing to calm volatile US stock markets. As he spoke, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell an additional 300 points during the first 35 minutes of the press briefing, down 1,500 points for the day. By around 1 p.m., with the president still at the James Brady Briefing Room lectern, the Dow again suspended trading after a safety measure was triggered as the index lost 1,660.63 points in another violent sell off.

Mr Trump and his public health team briefed reporters after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the president to act "as if it were a time of war," referring to worries about a lack of enough medical equipment and supplies.

He slammed the administration's response as "maddening."

Echoing the president, but in more blunt terms, the minority leader said the United States is almost certainly headed for an economic recession.

'Wartime president'

Calling himself a "wartime president," Mr Trump told reporters he views the country as being on a wartime footing.

The president again tried to strike an upbeat tone on Wednesday after for weeks dismissing and downplaying what experts said was the threat of a widespread outbreak on US soil.

"We're going to defeat the invisible enemy," he said. "I think we're going to do it even faster."

That comment, however, comes as The Johns Hopkins University puts the number of confirmed US cases at 6,519 with 55 deaths.

But from Italy came potentially ominous data, said Deborah Brix, a White House task force member: A number of millennials there have become violently ill in hospitals, including some in intensive care units.

She called that generation "our future," and said "we need them healthy" as she urged them and all Americans to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines to slow the spread of the super bug.

Asked if NBA superstar Kevin Durant testing positive for the bug means the wealthy and well-connected are able to get tests easier than average citizens, Mr Trump bluntly said: "Perhaps the story of life."

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