Donald Trump has taken to social media to claim that the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the United States has been "exaggerated".

Taking to Twitter on Sunday (January 3), the outgoing president wrote to his 88.6 million followers:

"The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov’s ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low.

"'When in doubt, call it Covid.' Fake News!"

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Per the CDC's Covid-19 Data Tracker (found HERE), the most recent numbers as of this writing state that there have been 20,061,818 total confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the US, resulting in 346,925.

Just minutes after Trump tweeted his baseless claims, Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC's This Week Co-anchor Martha Raddatz: "To have 300,000 cases in a given day, and between two and 3,000 deaths a day is just terrible."

Per ABC News, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases added:

"There's no running away from the numbers, Martha. It's something that we absolutely got to grasp and get our arms around and turn that inflection down by very intensive adherence to the public health measures, uniformly, throughout the country, with no exception."

When asked for his thoughts on President Trump's tweet, Fauci said: "The deaths are real deaths.

"All you need to do is go out into the trenches. Go to the hospitals and see what the health care workers are dealing with. They are under very stressful situations in many areas of the country. The hospital beds are stretched, people are running out of beds, running out of trained personnel who are exhausted."

"That's real," he continued. "That's not fake. That's real."

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As stated on the official website for The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

"CDC reports COVID-19 case counts, deaths, and laboratory testing numbers daily online. Data on the COVID-19 website and CDC’s COVID Data Tracker are based on the most recent numbers reported by states, territories, and other jurisdictions."

Reporting on its "Accuracy of Data", the CDC states that Covid-19 cases are "voluntarily reported" by health departments across the US.

It adds: "As of April 14, 2020, CDC case counts and death counts include both confirmed and probable cases and deaths." More information on the CDC Covid-19 data can be found HERE.

Per The Guardian, Trump first publicly referred to the coronavirus pandemic as the "Chinese virus" back in March, in a tweet condemned at the time by China's foreign ministry.

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Additionally, as of this writing, the John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center reports that there have been 20,430,802 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the US, resulting in the deaths of 350,214.

Trump claims the United States' 'China Virus' statistics have been 'exaggerated'