Donald Trump claimed doctors get paid more if they put Covid-19 down as a patient's cause of death.

There's no evidence the claim is true, and the President has previously been slammed for saying similar things.

He told a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan: "Our doctors get more money if someone dies from Covid. You know that, right?

"Our doctors are very smart.

"So what they do is, they say, "I’m sorry, but, you know, everybody dies of Covid.""

He added: "But in Germany and other places, if you have a heart attack, or you have cancer, you’re terminally ill, you catch Covid, they say you died of cancer, you died of heart attack. With us, when in doubt, choose Covid.”

He claimed doctors could get "like $2,000 more" for a patient whose death is listed as Covid-19.

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When President Trump previously made similar claims, the American Medical Association said: "At a time when physicians and other health care professionals are providing care to a record number of Covid-19 patients, amidst a third wave, there is misinformation about how patients are counted.

"Let's be clear, physicians are not inflating the number of Covid-19 patients."

And the American College of Emergency Physicians said: "President Trump's baseless claims about physicians overcounting COVID-19 deaths is harmful and offensive."

The pandemic has dominated the final days of the campaign.

The coronavirus has killed nearly 229,000 people in the United States and hammered the economy.

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Since overcoming his own COVID-19 infection, Trump has maintained a frenetic pace, holding up to three rallies a day with thousands of attendees despite concerns the events could spread the virus. Biden has held smaller events, including "drive-in" rallies where supporters remain in their cars for safety.

Trump has for months played down the pandemic, telling supporters in recent weeks that the country is "turning the corner" even as cases surge.

The president's oldest son also tried to minimize the crisis, telling Fox News on Thursday the pandemic has "gone to almost nothing." He spoke on the same day that more than 1,000 people died of COVID-19 in the United States and the country reported a single-day record of more than 91,000 cases.

"The number is almost nothing because we've gotten control of this thing. We understand how it works. They have the therapeutics to be able to deal with this," Donald Trump Jr. said on Laura Ingraham's program.

Biden has sharply criticized Trump's approach to the virus.

"Donald Trump has waved the white flag, abandoned our families and surrendered to this virus," Biden said in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday.