A sombre President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that the coronavirus crisis in the United States is likely to "get worse before it gets better."
"Some areas of our country are doing very well," Mr Trump said at his first formal White House briefing on the pandemic in almost three months.
"Others are doing less well," the president said. "It will probably, unfortunately get worse before it gets better."
He said there had been a "a concerning rise in (virus) cases in many parts of our South."
Mr Trump urged Americans to wear face masks to help prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus which has left more than 141,000 people dead in the United States.
"We are asking everybody that when you are not able to socially distance, wear a mask," he said.
"Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact. They will have an effect and we need everything we can get."
President Donald Trump wearing a face mask during a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Cente, 11 July, 2020. Source: AAP
Mr Trump said he was getting used to masks and would wear one himself in groups or when on an elevator.
“I will use it, gladly,” he said. “Anything that potentially can help ... is a good thing.”
The president also urged young Americans to avoid crowded bars where the virus could spread.
The return to presidential coronavirus briefings - abandoned in late April after Mr Trump drew ridicule for musing on the potential for injecting coronavirus patients with household disinfectant - was part of a concerted bid to take back control of the message.
After an erratic national response, some 140,000 deaths, and now dramatic surges in new cases across the south and south-west, polls show two-thirds of Americans mistrusting Mr Trump's leadership on the issue.
Polls also show his response to the pandemic driving voters strongly in the direction of opponent Joe Biden in the presidential election, due in just over 100 days.
While Mr Trump makes his latest pivot, Congress is starting to negotiate another large-scale economic relief bill to try and prop up an economy devastated by mass unemployment and shuttered businesses.
Mr Trump also touted good news on vaccine development which he said would be completed "a lot sooner than anyone thought possible."
He also raised eyebrows by coming to the podium alone, rather than with medical leaders. His top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, who has been attacked by Trump's team for his often less than upbeat prognosis, was not even invited.
Primetime
Mr Trump, a lifetime salesman and a veteran of reality television, often appears more comfortable in front of the cameras than in the more formal settings of traditional presidential life. Although he constantly complains about unfair press coverage, he gives more press conferences and jousts with journalists more often than probably any other Oval Office occupant.
He said he will continue the early evening primetime television briefings, although possibly not every day.
Tuesday's version was succinct at less than half an hour and he mostly kept to the White House talking points. But it is unknown whether Mr Trump will resist using the platform in the future to return to his more usual divisive rhetoric.
He trails Mr Biden in all polls and is retooling his campaign to an ever-darker message in which he tries to paint the Democrat as backed by anarchists and Venezuelan-style socialists.
Mr Trump's Twitter feed on Tuesday gave an indication of his divided attention.
On one hand there was the upbeat tweet: "Tremendous progress being made on Vaccines and Therapeutics!!!"
And on the other, the evidence-free, alarming claim - shocking for a sitting president - that the election in which he is forecast to lose will be rigged.
"Mail-In Voting, unless changed by the courts, will lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation's History! #RIGGEDELECTION."
