CDC director says data is ‘forthcoming’ on how many Americans died from or with COVID-19

"Do you know how many of the 836,000 deaths in the US linked to COVID are from COVID, or how many are with COVID? But they had other comorbidities. Do you have that breakdown?" asked Fox News Sunday host Bret Baier.

"Yes, of course, with omicron we're following that very carefully," responded Walensky. "Our death registry, of course, takes a few weeks to — takes a few weeks to collect. And of course, omicron has just been with us for a few weeks, but those data will be forthcoming."

Walenksy elaborated on the statement, noting that all those that enter hospitals are being tested for COVID-19.

"In some hospitals that we've talked to, up to 40 percent of the patients who are coming in with COVID are coming in not because they're sick with COVID but because they're coming in with something else and have had COVID or the omicron variant detected," she said, in regards to the omicron variant.

In response to Walensky's statements on Thursday, Candace Owens wrote on Twitter: "This is amazing. 'Our death registry takes a few weeks to collect…' So how the hell was CNN able to run a minute by minute death ticker when this all began?"

"We have been lied to from the very beginning. Covid has been a fear campaign used to radically transform our society," she continued.

Walensky's statement echoes a similar statement given by Dr. Anthony Fauci last month, regarding children in the hospital.

"And what we mean by that: If a child goes into the hospital, they automatically get tested for COVID and they get counted as a COVID-hospitalized individual, when, in fact, they may go in for a broken leg or appendicitis or something like that. So it's over counting the number of children who are, quote, hospitalized with COVID as opposed to because of COVID," Fauci said.