A commercial aircraft carrying 80 tons of gloves, masks, gowns and other medical supplies from Shanghai touched down in New York on Sunday, the first of 22 scheduled flights that White House officials say will funnel much-needed goods to the United States by early April as it battles the world's largest coronavirus outbreak.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is working with private companies on the initiative to "expedite the movement of critical supplies from other countries to the United States," the president said.

FEMA has scheduled 19 additional flights, and hopes to have about 50, Trump said at the press conference.

And he noted the grim scenes playing out at hard-hit Elmhurst Hospital in his native Queens.

"Body bags all over, in hallways. I've been watching them bring in trailer trucks — freezer trucks, they're freezer trucks, because they can't handle the bodies, there are so many of them. This is essentially in my community, in Queens, Queens, New York."

When I see the trucks pull up to take out bodies, and these are trucks that are as long as the Rose Garden. And they're pulling up to take out bodies and you look inside, and you see the black body bags… (It's) Elmhurst Hospital, must be supplies. It is not supplies, it is people. I have never seen anything like it."