Vice President Mike Pence discussed the administration’s efforts to secure more masks for health care workers as well as more ventilators for sick Americans who may need treatment.

“We continue at the President’s direction to pursue every means to expand the supply of personal protective equipment,” Pence said.

“We have a policy of procuring, allocating — as well as conserving — the resources that we have in our system,” he said.

Pence teased a “a major procurement from the federal government of N95 masks” coming over the weekend.

He also highlighted “new alternatives to increase the supply of ventilators” in the US amid fears that the health care system does not have enough to keep alive the number of Americans likely to become seriously ill at the height of an outbreak.

Pence said part of those efforts involve a push to “free up other ventilators” in use in the system.

“We’ve literally identified tens of thousands of existing ventilators that can be retrofitted and converted” to help coronavirus patients Pence said.

As part of the concerns about insufficient ventilators, Pence said “we want to continue to urge every American… postpone elective medical procedures.”