Trump: Coronavirus will 'get worse before it gets better,' wear mask if no social distance

The country's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic will "probably, unfortunately get worse before it gets better," President Trump said Tuesday during a revival of his White House coronavirus task force press briefings. 

Trump also encouraged Americans to wear face masks if they were unable to socially distance from those around them.

 "Get a mask. Whether you like the mask or not, get a mask" Trump said. "They have an effect."

Trump held up his own personal face mask with the presidential seal while standing before the podium, saying that he carries it with him and wears it on elevators and in other areas when needed.

"I will use it gladly," Trump said. "I have no problem with the masks. I view it this way: Anything that potentially can help, and that certainly can potentially help." 

The president took the stage alone in a roughly 25-minuter press conference in which he also took questions on such issues as virus testing and possible vaccines. This was the first such conference since May 11.

Trump said two coronavirus vaccines are entering the final stages of clinical trials this month. Four others aren't far behind, he added. Military logistics experts are available, Trump said, to distribute the coronavirus vaccine rapidly.

"We're very close to the vaccine," Trump said. "I think we're going to have some very good results. We're already in testing. Nobody thought that would be possible under the old system, it would be a year to two years before you could even think about using the word 'testing.' And the reason we're testing, they've had good results."

Trump said that coronavirus fatalities had fallen 75% since April and that the steroid treatment Remdesivir had shown promising results and would continue to be allocated to hospitals based on new admissions because, he said, studies showed the drug works best used if used early.

"We’ve learned best practices for treatment of the virus at every stage," he said, pointing to medical advances in understanding different approaches to oxygen treatment, including the importance of ventilator treatments.

Trump also said the coronavirus case fatality rate has continued to decline and is now lower than in the European Union. He also reported that as of Tuesday the average age of a coronavirus patient is significantly younger than in April, that hospital stays for coronavirus have been cut in half, and that the rate of cases requiring hospitalizations is falling.

Trump was asked by a journalist why physicians Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci weren't on the podium with him. 

“Dr. Birx is right outside," Trump said.

Trump said he would support additional congressionally-approved funding in a future coronavirus relief bill if physicians recommended additional testing, despite reporting that the United States had far surpassed any nation in the number of reported coronavirus tests (50 million), as compared to second place India (12 million).