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A top member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, acknowledged in bombshell testimony Thursday on Capitol Hill that the federal government has failed when it comes to testing and detecting the rapidly spreading coronavirus.

“The system is not really geared to what we need right now, what you are asking for. That is a failing,” Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee. “It is a failing. I mean, let’s admit it.”

“You put it out in the public and a physician asks for it and you get it. The idea of anybody getting it easily, the way people in other countries are doing it, we’re not set for that,” Fauci said. “Do I think we should be? Yes, but we are not.”

Fauci responded to questions from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who cited a complaint from the National Nurses United that even nurses exposed to the virus were having trouble getting tests.

Fauci, testifying alongside Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said health authorities are working to expand testing.

The CDC will now test people reporting flu-like symptoms at hospitals in six cities, Fauci said. He did not name the cities and the CDC did not immediately respond to questions from The Post.

US cases of COVID-19 topped 1,200 Wednesday and deaths hit 38. After emerging in China in late December, the virus has infected more than 115,000 people in 114 countries, killing more than 4,200.

South Korea, where nearly 8,000 became infected, introduced drive-through testing for the public. The country’s rate of new infections is now declining.

On Wednesday night, President Trump announced an unprecedented ban on foreigners visiting the US if they were in Europe’s 26-country Schengen area in the past 14 days.

The EU zone allows residents of 26 countries to travel without restrictions or passport controls: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Trump’s order doesn’t cover nations outside the zone, including the United Kingdom, Ireland and many Eastern European nations like Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

Redfield testified that 70 percent of new coronavirus cases in the world were linked to Europe, where there are significant outbreaks in Italy, France, Germany and Spain. “Europe is the new China,” he said.

The health officials received some sympathy from lawmakers.

“Y’all are drinking not from a fire hydrant but from a tidal wave,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC). “The majority of the country understands we didn’t anticipate this.”