US Surgeon General defends US Covid data after Trump said it's exaggerated

US surgeon general Jerome Adams on Sunday contradicted President Donald Trump's claim of "exaggerated" COVID-19 cases and deaths in the US saying that these numbers are real.

"I don't speak for the President. I speak for the office of the surgeon general and the public health service and I'm focused on making sure people get the information they need and wash your hands and stay your distance and get the vaccine when it's available," Adams told CNN.

He added that he has "no reason" to doubt the numbers. "From a health perspective I have no reason to doubt those numbers and I think people need to be very aware it's not about the deaths as we talked about earlier but the hospitalizations and the capacity," US Surgeon General said further.

He added, "These cases are having an impact in an array of ways and people need to understand there is a finish line in sight but we have to keep running towards it."

Dr Anthony Fauci, the US top infectious disease expert also echoed the same sentiment and added that the deaths due to COVID-19 are "real deaths".

"All you need to do is go out into the trenches, go to the hospitals, see what the health care workers are dealing with," Fauci said in an interview with ABC as quoted by CNN.

"They are under very stressed 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 right now... That's real. That's not fake. That's real," he added.

Trump on Sunday said that the record-breaking numbers of new COVID-19 cases, nearly 300,000 in the past 24 hours, are exaggerated due to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) method of counting.

"The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of @CDCgov (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)'s the ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of whom report, purposely, very inaccurately and low," Trump wrote in a tweet.

The outgoing president added, "'When in doubt, call it Covid.' Fake News!"

The US has the most COVID-19 cases in the world reporting over 20.5 million cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.