President Donald Trump said U.S. health officials should have a "good idea" whether an anti-malaria drug being tested as a treatment for COVID-19 is effective in fighting the coronavirus in "the next three days."

"Hydroxychloroquine is something that I have been pushing very hard," Trump said Monday morning during an interview on Fox News. "I think we're going to have a good idea over the next three days because it's been used now in New York at my request -- 1,100 people. It's been used. I think that's better than testing it in a laboratory. But the doctors tell me no."

There are no proven therapies for the treatment of COVID-19 and U.S. health officials expect a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months.

New York state last week began the first large-scale clinical trial using a combination of chloroquine and Azithromycin to treat the coronavirus after the Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked the approval process.

Trump has repeatedly touted chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a "game-changer" even though the drugs have not been put through rigorous clinical trials to fight CV-19, which has infected more than 730,000 people worldwide in three months. Trump earlier this month directed the FDA to examine whether the drugs can be used to prevent or treat the coronavirus.