Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield attends a press conference on the COVID-19 at the White House in Washington D.C. March 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"Some cases have been actually diagnosed that way (as flu instead of COVID-19 related) in the United States to date," Redfield responded to a question by U.S. Congressman Harley Rouda of California at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, March 12  -- Some COVID-19 deaths have been diagnosed as flu-related in the United States, Robert Redfield, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said.

Redfield was responding to a question by U.S. Congressman Harley Rouda of California at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

"We could have people in the United States dying for what appears to be influenza, when in fact it could be the coronavirus or COVID-19?" Rouda asked.

"Some cases have been actually diagnosed that way in the United States to date," Redfield answered.

As of Wednesday night, there were over 1,300 confirmed cases and 38 deaths in the United States, according to real-time data maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.v