Republican senator Ted Cruz is calling on president Donald Trump to use emergency measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Cruz has urged Mr Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) in order to help solve medical supply shortages.

Last Friday, Mr Cruz wrote to Alex Azar, the US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary urging him to use “the significant powers of the Defense Production Act.”

The DPA is a federal law that “confers upon the president a broad set of authorities to influence domestic industry in the interest of national defence,” according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.

The act gives the president authority over various categories, including “priorities and allocations,” which forces industry to give the government priority on orders and “Expansion of Productive Capacity and Supply,” which gives the president authority to expand production of critical supplies or goods.​

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Those are not the only two authorities enabled by the act, but are the ones that are most likely to be used during the coronavirus pandemic, with supplies of masks, ventilators and other critical goods low.

Oh his podcast Verdict, Mr Cruz said that there should be enough equipment available for every person who contracts the virus.

Ted Cruz taking questions in Washington (Andrew Canellero-Reynolds AFP)

“I don’t want to see doctors having to make a choice of who gets to live and who has to die because they don’t have the equipment to save their lives,” he said.

Mr Cruz explained that he’s concerned that the longer Mr Trump waits to invoke the act, the harder it will be to have enough equipment in time, saying: “You can’t build a ventilator overnight.”

“And if we wake up two weeks from now and instead of 11,000 cases, we’ve got 200,000 cases or a million cases, it might be too late then.”

Mr Cruz added: “Everyone recognises this is a public health threat,” he said. “We need to do everything on the front end to make sure we’re not forced into an impossible situation on the back end.”

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 42,817 people have tested positive in the US. The death toll has passed the 500 mark, with more than 100 deaths in one day for the first time.