US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to allow Pentagon to engage former military personnel in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News reported.

"Today the President signed an Executive Order authorizing Secretary Esper to order units and individual members in the National Guard and Reserves and certain Individual Ready Reserve members, to active duty to augment forces for the effective response to the coronavirus outbreak," Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.

According to the order, up to a million ex-representatives of the US Armed Forces called up can remain at the disposal of the ministry for up to two years.

“This will allow us to mobilize medical disaster emergency response personnel to help wage our battle against the virus,” Trump said at a press conference Friday previewing the decision. "We have a lot of people, retirees, great military people, they're coming back in,"