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Alex Brandon/AP
PHOTO: Surgeon General Jerome Adams speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Friday, April 3, 2020, in Washington.
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Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the CDC had reversed its guidance because of new evidence of transmission by asymptotic patients.

\"In light of the new evidence, CDC recommends and the Task Force recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain,\" Adams said. \"These include places like grocery stores and pharmacies.\"

\"Please, please leave the N95, the medical supplies, for the medical professionals, health care workers, and frontline workers,\" Adams said. \"Know that this is not a substitute for social distancing. And please remember this is all about me protecting you, and you protecting me.\"

\"PHOTO:
Alex Brandon/AP
PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 3, 2020, in Washington.
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When the president was asked by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl if he agrees with recent comments by Dr. Anthony Fauci that all states be under a stay-at-home order, he repeated his stance that it was a decision for each state to make.

“I leave it up to the governors. The governors know what they have been doing. They are doing a good job. We are close to 90 percent anyway,” Trump said of Americans under stay-at-home directives. “I like that from the standpoint of governing, and I like that from the standpoint of even our Constitution.”

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield emphasized that embracing social distancing is “the powerful weapon” for Americans to combat the COVID-19 but explained that the new recommendation of facial coverings provides \"another strategy to protect someone from spreading the virus.\"

“This virus has a great weakness. It can't jump from one person to another if it has to swim more than six feet,” Redfield said. “That said, we know that there may be individuals in areas of significant community transmission that may be asymptomatically infected, and we know that a face barrier can actually interrupt the number of virus particles that can go from one person to another.

\"PHOTO:
Alex Brandon/AP
PHOTO: Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 3, 2020, in Washington.
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After Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House task force coordinator, warned the country can't afford another \"hot spot\" metropolitan area like New York City, Trump followed her, saying, \"the model shows hundreds of thousands of people are going to die. You know what I want to do? I want to come way under the model.

\"PHOTO:
Alex Brandon/AP
PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 3, 2020, in Washington.
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\"The professionals did the models. I was never involved,\" Trump added, seeming to distance himself personally from the dire projection. \"But you know what, hundreds of thousands of people. I want much less than that.\"

Trump also was asked to clarify comments made by his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at Thursday's briefing when he said that the states should have had bigger stockpiles and that the federal stockpile of medical equipment and supplies is \"ours.\"

Hours after the comments, the Trump administration appeared to edit the national stockpile website to match Kushner's comments. The president was asked to confirm at Friday's briefing that the federal stockpile was designed to be able to distribute needed equipment to the states, as the website suggested before the wording was changed.

“Sure, but it is also needed for the federal government,” Trump said. “We have a federal stockpile, and they have state stockpiles. And frankly, they were -- many of the states were totally unprepared for this. So, we had to go into the federal stockpile. But we’re not an ordering clerk.\"

New White House procedure: Anyone who comes close to Trump must get rapid COVID-19 test

The White House has confirmed a new procedure is now in place requiring anyone who comes into close proximity with the president, such as in meetings, to get a rapid COVID-19 test.

\"As the Physician to the President and White House Operations continue to protect the health and safety of the President and Vice President, starting today anyone who is expected to be in close proximity to either of them will be administered a COVID-19 test to evaluate for pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic carriers status to limit inadvertent transmission,\" Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said in a statement.

The White House is declining to elaborate on why this policy is being implemented now, other than to say that decisions are being made in consultation with the White House physician.

This development comes just a day after the president said he received his second negative test results.

The tests will not apply to members of the press at this time.

-- ABC News' Jonathan Karl, Jordyn Phelps, Katherine Faulders and Jon Santucci

\"PHOTO:
Alex Brandon/AP
PHOTO: President Donald Trump holds up letter from the White House physician noting that he tested negative in a COVID-19 test he took earlier in the day, in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 2, 2020, in Washington.
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Kudlow says he won't 'sugarcoat' it, U.S. economy is 'going to get worse'

Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic adviser, warned of the dire economic situation the country faces amid the coronavirus pandemic.

\"It's going to get worse in the weeks ahead, there's no question about it,\" he told reporters Friday. \"We have not seen the worst of it, I don’t want to sugarcoat it.\"

Kudlow declined to offer a numerical figure for how bad he forecasts unemployment numbers to get, but when asked on FOX News whether the country is looking at double-digit unemployment figures, he didn’t mince words.

\"The numbers are going to come in very badly, they’re going to look terrible in the weeks ahead. How much longer, I don't really want to forecast. That's up to the health people. But there’s no question that it will be bad,\" Kudlow said.

\"PHOTO:
Oliver Contreras/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
PHOTO: Larry Kudlow, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, speaks to members of the media at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, March 24, 2020.
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His comments came after a Friday report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed U.S. employers cut 701,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 3.5%.

It marks a sharp reversal from the administration's tone just a few weeks ago, when Kudlow himself said there was no need for \"massive, federal throw money at people plans\" and the administration was looking at \"micro\" economic stimulus actions.

Kudlow said the administration's focus remains on implementing the current stimulus and not in writing a future plan, but he added, \"if we need to do more, we will do more.\"

-- ABC News' Jordyn Phelps

What to know about coronavirus:

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