WATCH: Pelosi says death of George Floyd in police custody was ‘murder’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi started her regular weekly news conference Thursday marking the moment when the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States reached 100,000.

Calling for more nationwide testing, Pelosi said it was “a scar on our nation,” that they could not be saved.

WATCH: U.S. coronavirus death toll passes 100,000 milestone

“There has to be a stop to this,” she said. “The answer is testing.”

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.

Pelosi also described the death of a black man in police custody in Minneapolis as “murder.”

“We saw it on TV, him being murdered on TV,” Pelosi said, pledging Congressional action “so that this stops.”

Protests in Minnesota began late Wednesday and stretched into Thursday morning reacting to the death of George Floyd, who was seen on video gasping for breath during an arrest in which an officer kneeled on his neck for almost eight minutes.

In the footage, George pleads that he cannot breathe and slowly stops talking and moving.