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Many Democratic governors and public health experts, meanwhile, say testing combined with contact tracing, which involves tracking down others with whom the infected person had contact, is the most effective way to slow the spread until a vaccine is available.
With additional measures being considered this week at the White House, critics of the administration also question when widespread testing, contact tracing and protective equipment will be available to all everyday Americans returning to work.
According to the COVID Tracking Project, testing for the coronavirus in the U.S. has steadily improved to around 264,000 tests a day -- nearly nine million tests total as of Monday -- but the U.S. is still below proposed benchmarks from several experts.
Researchers at the Harvard University, for example, calculated that the U.S. would need to do approximately 500,000 tests per day, as a bare minimum, by May 1 -- a figure they have since revised to 900,000 for May 15 as more states ease restrictions.
Trump and his political allies, however, have touted the total number of coronavirus tests conducted in the U.S., though the country still lags behind countries like Italy and Denmark in per capita tests performed.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/trump-fauci-ap-jt-200424_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Alex Brandon/AP, FILE
PHOTO: President Donald Trump watches as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, April, 22, 2020.
Despite the reality that there still aren't enough tests for every American who wants to return to work to get one, Trump denied any issues in an interview last week with ABC News' \"World News Tonight\" Anchor David Muir. When asked whether \"any worker who's nervous about going back\" would have access to both diagnostic tests for the virus and antibody, or serological tests, \"right now,\" Trump replied, \"There should be no problem.\"
The same day Adm. Brett Giroir, who is in charge of the government's testing efforts, told Time that \"there is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day.\"
Trump continued his conflicting messaging the following day, insisting in the Oval Office that he had \"never said\" the U.S. would hit the 5-million-per-day benchmark -- but in the same breath said, \"I think we will.\"
And with the average American hearing less from prominent and trusted coronavirus task force members like Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, their comments on the state of testing in the U.S. have flickered across sporadic media interviews in the last week.
With Fauci in \"modified quarantine\" himself, it's unclear if they'll be in attendance at Thursday's briefing or speak candidly at it -- though Trump and Fauci have publicly disagreed on testing before.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/president-trump-gov-abbot-05-ap-jc-200507_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Evan Vucci/AP
PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting about the coronavirus response with Gov. Greg Abbott in the Oval Office of the White House, May 7, 2020, in Washington.
After Fauci told Time in late April that he was \"not overly confident\" with the county's testing capacity and said, \"We absolutely need to significantly ramp up, not only the number of tests but the capacity to actually perform them,\" Trump dismissed the doctor's comments.
\"I don't agree with him on that, no, I think we're doing a great job on testing,\" Trump said in the White House briefing room, though Fauci was not present to defend himself.
More recently, Fauci emphasized the need for testing to National Geographic last week, and unlike comments the president has made, Fauci said, \"I don't think there's a chance that this virus is just going to disappear.\"
\"Shame on us if we don't have enough tests by the time this so-called return might occur in the fall and winter,\" he said, suggesting that the U.S. needs to make sure there's an adequate supply of tests and a system for getting those tests to the people who most need them before a second wave of the virus hits. \"It's going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge.\"
Birx, often diplomatic and hesitant to criticize the White House, did break from a suggestion Trump made last week that the U.S. should conduct less testing because its make the country's case count higher.
\"The media likes to say we have the most [coronavirus] cases, but we do, by far, the most testing. If we did very little testing, we wouldn't have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad,\" Trump said last Wednesday.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/white-house-coronavirus-briefing-05-gty-jc-200421_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Response coordinator for White House Coronavirus Task Force Deborah Birx speaks as President Donald Trump listens during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, April 21, 2020.
Though Birx didn't directly contradict the president, she stressed that testing efforts are essential and should be ramped up when asked about his comments.
\"I've been very encouraged about two parts of the testing,\" Birx told CNN last Thursday. \"One, the dramatic increase in the number of tests we're doing per week. We hope this week to get close or over eight million (total). We're going up.\"
She estimated that about 2.5 percent of all Americans have been tested, adding that the number is increasing by half a percent every week. As with many experts, she said testing and contact tracing are proven to be critical to helping identify cases locally and contain the spread.
Birx also stressed the importance of \"being proactive about testing,\" and monitoring high-risk places with vulnerable populations such as prisons, long-term care center and inner city communities -- potentially what the administration may be announcing this afternoon, after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, announced required twice-weekly testing for nursing staffers in his state.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/cuomo-rt-ml-200508_hpEmbed_15x11_384.jpg\")
Mike Segar/Reuters
PHOTO: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo holds a protective mask to his face as he arrives for a daily briefing at New York Medical College during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Valhalla, New York, May 7, 2020.
During a White House meeting with Republican House lawmakers last week, Trump repeated his widely discredited prediction that the pandemic will disappear on its own, and extended his downplaying of testing to vaccines.
\"I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests. This is going to go away without a vaccine,\" Trump said Friday. \"It's going to go away and it's, we're not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time. You may have some, some flare-ups,\" in the fall.
\"They die, too,\" he claimed of viruses, contrary to his own scientists.
What to know about the coronavirus:
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