President Trump said Saturday that the U.S. is heading into what could be its “toughest” weeks as coronavirus spikes across the country, warning that things will get worse before they get better.

“There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. There will be death,” Trump said to open his daily briefing on the pandemic.

“This will be probably the toughest week, between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately,” the president said. “But a lot less death than if this wasn’t done, but there will be death. We’re looking for an obvious focus and the hardest-hit regions. Some of them are obvious and some are not so obvious. They spring up, they hit you like you got hit by a club.”

“Every decision we’re making is made to save lives. It’s really our sole consideration. We want to save lives. We want as few lives lost as possible,” Trump continued.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said the counties in and around New York, Detroit, and New Orleans are still on the rising part of the curve, and their peaks will all hit in the next seven days.