SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- As hospitals across the state prepare for a surge of coronavirus patients, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday that millions of much-needed masks were being delivered to health care facilities across California, and more were on the way.

Newsom said 10 million masks were sent out last week, with 1.5 million being delivered in just the last few days. Still, health care providers say they need more as they ready their facilities.

"It's times like this when we are filled with anxiety, a tremendous amount of uncertainty and it's understandable people have a mindset of scarcity, you see that manifested in some of the decisions people are making with purchases," Newsom said in an address and question and answer session on Facebook, Saturday night.

"At the same time it is a remarkable moment to be candid with you," he continued. "I cannot express more gratitude at the same time we are struggling through this moment. That is the incredible mindset that also persists, not just here in California, but across the country... an abundance of the belief we can get through this."

In the last 48 hours, Newsom said he has been in discussions with leading scientists, researchers and engineers including Nobel laureates, searching for solutions to the problems the growing outbreak has presented.

Among industry leaders, Newsom singled out Apple CEO Tim Cook for his pledge to provide 1 million masks to state health care workers. He said Tesla founder Elon Musk told him, on Saturday, his company would provide 250,000 more much-needed masks to California hospitals.

Newsom said it wasn't only large companies that were chipping in. An unnamed Santa Rosa manufacturing company wanted to convert its production line to making masks. And seamstresses in the Los Angeles garment district also volunteered to chip in on the effort.

"It's ennobling," Newsom said of the effort. "We truly can meet this moment."

At a press conference in Washington earlier Saturday, President Donald Trump attempted to quell fears among the public over the crisis a surge of patients could present. He said help was on the way to overwhelmed hospitals, adding that private companies had agreed to provide desperately needed medical supplies to fight the fast-spreading spread of the virus.

But Trump seemed to resist appeals from state and local officials and hospital administrators for more aggressive action. He said he wasn't ready to invoke his executive powers to compel companies to make face masks and other gear to protect front-line health workers.

He also said that FEMA would now control the flow of the much-needed supplies across the country from the federal government. States, like Newsom's efforts in California, were making independent efforts to secure essential supplies.

Speaking at the briefing, Vice-President Mike Pence said the federal government had placed orders for "hundreds of millions" of the N-95 face masks that can shield medical workers from the virus.

Trump added that clothing company Hanes was among those that had been enlisted to start churning out masks, although the company said they would not be the N-95 masks that are most effective in protecting medical workers.

Neither Trump nor Pence would say when the masks would be ready and FEMA officials could not specifically say when they would be delivered.

More than 21,000 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States, and that number is expected to soar in coming weeks.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, so far there were 662 cases across 9 counties, with 263 of those cases being in Santa Clara County. As of Saturday, there had been 11 deaths in the Bay Area from the disease.