U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday rejected reports that he was planning to fire Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, saying he was doing an "excellent job." 

On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal and Politico reported that the Trump administration was considering replacing Azar, because of early missteps in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Reports that H.H.S. Secretary @AlexAzar is going to be fired by me are Fake News," Trump tweeted. "Alex is doing an excellent job."

The Journal, citing six people familiar with the discussions, reported that frustration with Azar was growing but the administration was reluctant to make big changes while the country was seeking to stop the virus, which has killed more than 53,000 people and infected nearly 1 million in the country. 

White House spokesman Judd Deer, denied the reports on Saturday and said the HHS under Azar continued to lead on a number of the president's priorities.

Alex Azar, a 52-year-old lawyer and former drug industry executive, assured Americans the U.S. government was prepared on January 21, the day the first U.S. case of coronavirus was reported, when he appeared on Fox News.

"We developed a diagnostic test at the CDC, so we can confirm if somebody has this," Azar said. "We will be spreading that diagnostic around the country so that we are able to do rapid testing on site."

As is now widely known, two agencies Azar oversaw as HHS secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, wouldn't come up with viable tests for five and half weeks, even as other countries and the World Health Organization had already prepared their own.

Read more:

How Trump mishandled coronavirus outbreak in U.S.

Officials across the government, from President Trump down, have been blasted for America's halting response to the pandemic. Critics inside and outside the administration say a meaningful share of the responsibility lies with HHS and Trump appointee Azar.

Azar is a Republican lawyer who once clerked for the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and counts current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as a friend. Under George W. Bush, Azar worked for HHS as general counsel and deputy secretary. During the Obama years, he cycled through the private sector as a pharmaceutical company lobbyist and executive for Eli Lilly. After Trump's first HHS secretary was forced out in a travel corruption scandal, Azar was appointed in January 2018.

In the United States, 956,000 cases of COVID-19 and 54,000 deaths have been reported nationwide as of Sunday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.

Last week, Trump unveiled guidelines for a phased reopening of parts of the economy disrupted by the pandemic. Some states have started reopening portions of their businesses over the weekend. 

Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the country will be able to double its COVID-19 testing capacity over the next several weeks, which is needed to safely reopen portions of the economy, according to The Hill on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, another wave of states prepared to ease coronavirus restrictions on U.S. commerce this week, despite health experts warning there is still too little diagnostic testing, while the White House has forecast a staggering jump in the nation's monthly jobless rate.