U.S. health officials said on Tuesday they are discussing whether to recommend the general public wear face masks as a way to prevent transmission of the new coronavirus, but that it was too soon to take that step.
The wide use of masks outside the health care setting, which has been employed in other countries with some success, is under active consideration by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the White House coronavirus task force will discuss it on Tuesday, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert.
"The thing that has inhibited that bit is to make sure that we don't take away the supply of masks from the healthcare workers who need them," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN.