COVID-19: Donald Trump says he finally wore a mask -- but not for public viewing!

• US President also orders US flags to be lowered to half-staff for Covid-19 victims.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he'd finally overcome his aversion to wearing masks against the coronavirus -- yet he didn't want be photographed.

Touring a Ford auto factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where workers have converted to building respirators and other medical equipment for fighting Covid-19, Trump held up a mask and declared he'd covered his face earlier.

"I had one on before. I wore one in this back area but I didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it," he told reporters and photographers covering his visit.
Nearly everyone at the Ford factory was wearing a face covering, in line with company policy and government recommendations on curtailing the highly contagious virus.

In a statement from the auto giant, it said that company chairman Bill Ford "encouraged President Trump to wear a mask when he arrived. He wore a mask during a private viewing of three Ford GTs from over the years. The President later removed the mask for the remainder of the visit."

Trump, pushing to get Americans to put the pandemic behind them and reopen the faltering economy, has never worn a mask in public. He previously has said that he doesn't consider the look fitting his perception of himself as a world leader.

On Thursday, he said the mask "was very nice, it looked very nice."

Scepticism about the need for masks is rife among right-wing Americans who support Trump.

In more extreme circles, demands by local government or private businesses for the public to wear masks has been interpreted as a conspiracy against constitutional freedoms.

Also on Thursday, Trump ordered US flags to be lowered to half-staff for three days in honour of Americans who have died from coronavirus.

The announcement came as the US Covid-19 death toll approaches the 100,000 mark, and follows calls by Democrats to lower the flag when it reaches that grim milestone.

"I will be lowering the flags on all Federal Buildings and National Monuments to half-staff over the next three days in memory of the Americans we have lost to the CoronaVirus," Trump tweeted.

The Republican president added that flags would remain at half-staff on Monday for the country's Memorial Day, honouring those who have died while serving in the US military.

While US daily death tolls are no longer on a steady incline, the losses are still mounting, with the total count in the US above 94,500 -- by far the nation with the most deaths in the world.

The Memorial Day weekend will likely coincide with the country reaching 100,000 Covid-19 deaths.

Earlier in the day, top Democrats said flying the flags at half-staff upon reaching the 100,000 mark would reflect a "national expression of grief."

"Our hearts are broken over this great loss," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer wrote in a letter to the president.

The pair said it would be fitting to pay respects to victims of the crisis while honouring the nation's military heroes.

The United States has averaged nearly 1,300 coronavirus deaths per day this week.