President Donald Trump has not yet made use of the Defense Production Act to get critical supplies to the front lines of the coronavirus fight, FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Trump said Friday that he was using the act and had directed “a lot” of companies to produce key supplies like masks and ventilators.

On Saturday, the president suggested that he had not done that because private companies were stepping up on their own.

Gaynor told CNN that donations and voluntary offers of assistance were presently sufficient. “If it comes to a point we have to pull the lever, we will,” he said.

“We cannot wait until people start really dying in large numbers to start production,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday, warning that medical facilities in her hard-hit state do not have enough of the supplies they need.

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President Donald Trump has invoked but not yet started using the Defense Production Act (DPA) to get companies to manufacture critical supplies for the fight against the coronavirus, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Peter Gaynor revealed to CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday.

“No. We haven’t yet,” Gaynor replied when asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” if the Trump administration has ordered any companies to make critical medical supplies needed on the front lines of the coronavirus fight.

The FEMA chief insisted that donations and voluntary offers of assistance from companies are presently sufficient. “It’s happening without using that lever,” he explained, adding, “If it comes to a point we have to pull the lever, we will.”

FEMA administrator Pete Gaynor says Pres. Trump hasn’t enforced the Defense Production Act to order companies to manufacture masks, ventilators and other critical supplies because companies are donating equipment. “It’s happening without using that lever.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/2KYfE4ccHw — State of the Union (@CNNSotu) March 22, 2020

The president said at a press briefing Friday that the DPA, which gives the federal government the power to direct companies to prioritize production to meet US national defense demands, is already being used.

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“We’re using the act,” Trump said, saying that the DPA was spurring the production of ventilators, masks, and respirators. The president stated that he had directed “a lot” of companies to start making critical supplies, adding that “they’re making a lot of ventilators and they’re making a lot of masks.”

On Saturday, he appeared to backtrack, suggesting that he was not using the act because companies were stepping up on their own. “We’ve never seen anything like it where they are volunteering,” he said.

“We have the act to use, in case we need it,” the president said of the DPA.

US associations representing doctors, nurses, and hospitals sent a letter Saturday to the president begging him to use the Defense Production Act.

The letter said that “America’s hospitals, health systems, physicians and nurses urge you to immediately use the DPA to increase the domestic production of medical supplies and equipment that hospitals, health systems, physicians, nurses and all front line providers so desperately need.”

The US has so far reported more than 25,000 coronavirus cases with over 300 deaths. New York is the hardest-hit state, with more than 12,000 cases.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN’s Tapper Sunday that the president needs to act now rather than wait until the situation gets worse.

“We cannot wait until people start really dying in large numbers to start production, especially of more complicated equipment like ventilators and hospital beds,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“We need to start this production right now to get ready for the surge that is coming in two to three weeks,” the Democratic lawmaker added.”There are not enough face masks, gloves, ventilators, hospital beds to get us through this. Many hospitals are already at capacity or are approaching capacity.”

Urging Trump to use the DPA “to its fullest to get us things like ventilators,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told NBC Sunday that “if the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise.”

Update: This post has been updated to include Trump’s comments from Saturday’s press briefing, which appeared to contradict his comments from the day before.