WASHINGTON 3 Apr (ANA) - The White House is expected soon to advise Americans living in coronavirus hotspots to wear cloth masks or scarves in public to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. 

President Donald Trump said "I don't think it will be mandatory - if people want to wear them, they can".

Residents of New York, the outbreak's epicentre in the US, have been urged to cover their faces in public, but not to use surgical masks.

The US death toll is at least 6,000.

New York City is the worst-hit area, with 1,562 deaths in the pandemic, Johns Hopkins University reports in its daily global tally.

Both the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are reassessing their guidance on face masks, as experts race to find ways to fight the contagious virus.

Covid-19 is carried in airborne droplets from people coughing or sneezing, but there is some dispute about how far people should distance themselves from each other.(ANA)

FA/ANA/3 April 2020-----