US will increase COVID-19 testing despite Trump's claims of slowing down: Fauci

Anthony Fauci told House lawmakers on Tuesday that despite President Donald Trump's claim that he had asked officials to "slow the testing down," he had never been given such a directive.

In testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Fauci was asked about the president’s recent comments and whether he agrees that it makes sense to limit the number of COVID-19 tests.

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“It's the opposite, we're going to be doing more testing, not less,” said Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, who has played a key role in the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic.

"To my knowledge, none of us have ever been told to slow down on testing. That just is a fact," he said.Fauci said testing and contact surveillance were fundamental to "understand exactly what's going on in community spread."

"So, it's the opposite. We're going to be doing more testing, not less," said Fauci,the top infectious-disease expert at the National Institutes of Health.

Trump sparked outrage when he saidduringa rally in Tulsa, Okla., that more testing makes the country look bad by identifying more coronavirus cases, adding that he had told his staff to slow down testing.

"Testing is a double-edged sword," said Trump, who added that the UShas conducted 25 million tests. "When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases, so I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down, please.'"

But Fauci said Trump's commentsdo not reflect the administration's actual actions.

"It's the opposite," Fauci said. "We're going to be doing more testing, not less."

In his testimony, Fauci said the coronavirus threat right now is a “mixed bag” because the UShas been “hit badly” with more than 120,000 deaths and 2.5 million infections.

Fauci also predicted that a vaccine would be ready by early next year.