WASHINGTON: United States of America President Donald Trump has asked citizens of his country to wear a niqab to protect themselves from coronavirus instead of face masks viewing shortage of masks across the country.

He asked people to adopt other methods of protection. He said millions of masks were being manufactured but the government wanted them to go to the hospitals where they were needed more than anywhere else.

To a query about scarcity of masks during a press briefing at the White House, Donald Trump said, “You can use a scarf (as a replacement for mask). A lot of people have scarves. You can use a scarf. Scarf would be very good.

“My feeling is that people want to do it, there’s certainly no harm to it. I would say do it, but use a scarf if you want, rather than going out and getting a mask.”

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He said millions and millions of masks were being manufactured, but he wanted them to go to the hospitals. “One of the things Dr Fauci told me was we don’t want them competing. We don’t want everybody competing with the hospitals where you really need them.”

“You can use scarves. You can use something else over your face. It doesn’t have to be a mask, but it’s not a bad idea at least for a period of time. Eventually, you are not going to want to do that. You are not going to have to do that. This is going to be gone. Hopefully, gone for a long time,” he said.

Note: What Turmp meant here by scarf was niqab as scarf does not cover your face. Scarf covers your head and neck while niqab is a face veil covering the lower part of the face up to the eyes.