Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a press briefing with the coronavirus task force at the White House, on March 17. Evan Vucci/AP

The top infectious disease expert in the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told NBC's "The Today Show" he thinks Americans will have to stay home and continue to social distance for several more weeks.

“If you look at the trajectory of the curves of outbreaks in other areas, it’s at least going to be several weeks,” Fauci said on Friday. “I cannot see that all of a sudden, next week or two weeks from, it’s going to be over. I don’t think there’s a chance of that, I think it’s going to be several weeks.”

Fauci also discussed the spread of the novel coronavirus with host Savannah Guthrie.

He said the best thing the US can do right now is to delay any elective surgeries to keep hospital beds and equipment available.

Guthrie asked if President Trump should invoke the Defense Production Act, and Fauci said the president “is very serious about doing everything we could possibly do.”

They will meet today, Fauci said, and he is sure that would come up in their discussions.

Guthrie asked if doctors going to the craft store to make their own medical equipment is considered the worst-case scenario.

“Obviously we are in a very difficult situation and we should be doing everything we can to mitigate that,” Fauci responded.

Regarding the anti-malaria drug Trump said could treat COVID-19, Fauci said they have heard anecdotally that the drugs work, but they have not been tested in controlled trials.

“So what we’re saying is that we want to make them more available, but in the context of a protocol of some sort, that would not only make them available but that we can get some information as to whether they’re safe and whether they really work,” Fauci said.