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Pence’s Virus Tour Takes Him to Mask-Maker 3M, Washington State

Pence’s Virus Tour Takes Him to Mask-Maker 3M, Washington State

(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Mike Pence visited surgical-mask maker 3M Co. and one of the U.S. areas hardest hit by the novel coronavirus on Thursday, as the Trump administration tries to show it has the outbreak under control.

Pence met 3M executives in Minneapolis to discuss ramping up mask production. From there, he traveled to Olympia, Washington, to meet with Governor Jay Inslee after the state reported its 10th death from the illness.

The trip comes amid criticism that President Donald Trump’s administration has fumbled the distribution of coronavirus test kits, reinforcing uncertainty over how widely the virus has spread in the U.S. Pence, who is leading the White House coronavirus task force, has repeatedly said the risk to Americans remains low.

Pence said in Washington State that by the end of next week, enough test kits would be distributed nationally to allow the diagnosis of 1.2 million people. “We’re making great progress,” Pence said.

Pence’s Virus Tour Takes Him to Mask-Maker 3M, Washington State

So far, 12 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S. The deaths have centered around a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington -- near Seattle -- where there are a large number of suspected patients.

Pence said Wednesday that he had no reservations about visiting the state, and he complimented the work of Inslee, a Democrat, in dealing with the outbreak.

“The job that Washington State has done in confronting the coronavirus infections in the Seattle area has really been inspiring,” Pence said.

There was no evidence of tension between the two men at the meeting, despite Inslee’s criticism of the government’s response to the virus. Inslee, who was a Democratic candidate for president, accused the administration of lying in a Feb. 27 tweet from his personal account.

Inslee said that while he has disagreements with Trump, that hasn’t affected the state and federal response. “We’re not going to allow disagreements with one person in that government” to hurt efforts to fight the virus, Inslee added.

In a tweet Wednesday from his official account, Inslee thanked the administration for lifting restrictions on testing, changes that he had asked for: “I appreciate the responsiveness to state requests on COVID-19.”

Trump said on Feb. 29 the U.S. had about 43 million surgical masks stockpiled to protect health-care workers who handle coronavirus patients. The Department of Health and Human Services has said the U.S. will require 3.5 billion face masks if the coronavirus outbreak reaches pandemic levels.

Pence said Wednesday that 3M “is poised to literally begin manufacturing millions more masks for our health-care workers.” He added that “there’s no need for Americans to buy masks,” which should be reserved for health-care professionals.

At the start of his 3M visit, Pence told Chief Executive Officer Michael Roman that he was looking forward to hearing how well the company is “poised to meet the demand of masks and personal protective equipment first for those who have been infected by the coronavirus and, just as importantly, for all of our dedicated health care workers across this country.”

Stock markets have been volatile as the virus has continued to spread. The S&P 500 dropped more than 3% on Thursday. On March 3, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates outside of a normal policy schedule -- the first emergency move since the 2008 financial crisis.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mario Parker in Washington at mparker22@bloomberg.net;Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, John Harney

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