U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a briefing on the administration's coronavirus response in the press briefing room of the White House on March 3. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

As the Trump administration struggles to clear up confusion and mixed signals over testing amid concerns that tests were not being made available soon enough, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday evening said that "any American can be tested."

What Pence said: Pence said in an off-camera briefing at the White House that there was new guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that any American could be tested -- "no restrictions, subject to doctors' orders."

Pence said the new guidance will make clear "that any clinician or health authority can administer the test."

CNN has reached out to the CDC for comment on whether the agency's online guidance will be updated to reflect the vice president's remarks.

What happened before the announcement: The announcement follows numerous complaints of citizens asking to be tested and turned away due to the strict CDC testing criteria.

It also follows a number of government missteps that have left Americans scared and confused about how to protect themselves during the viral outbreak.

A botched roll out of CDC testing -- combined with what some health officials now believe was too-strict criteria on who could be tested -- caused a delay in testing that some health officials are increasingly concerned about.

US testing capabilities: On Monday, the Trump administration suggested that the US would be able to test close to 1 million people for coronavirus by the end of the week.

During a Senate hearing Tuesday, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was greeted by skeptical lawmakers and pushed to explain how he thinks the United States could do a million tests when, to date, it has only been able to perform about 3,600.

"I want to distinguish between the ability to get the test kits out to the laboratories with the ability of the labs to actually do the tests," Hahn told lawmakers, offering no clarity on how many tests could actually be run by the end of the week.

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