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Dr. Anand Parekh, former deputy assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), joined anchor Jon Scott on "Fox Report Weekend" to discuss the efforts underway to slow the spread of coronavirus, saying the whole country needs to get behind a stay-at-home order.

"We need to double down, really need the whole country under a stay-home order," Parekh said. "Because we know that reducing the contact rate is what reduces infections and all the models. The thing [that] distinguishes one model from another is how well we do in social distancing."

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Parekh warned that with testing yet to expand, health officials don't yet know the true extend of the spread of the virus.

"Because we haven't been able to expand testing ... we don't quite know the full sort of distribution or transmission of the virus," Parekh said.

The chief medical adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center said social distancing was key to making sure the health care community can handle what's to come.

"The pandemic curve is going to hit every state, every community," Parekh said. "You need to put into practice social distancing ahead of time to see the differences. Several weeks down the road, this is the time to really prepare the health care system -- and the best way to do that, to reduce that surge in the coming weeks, is right now to ensure that social distancing is implemented at its maximum."

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"And that's really what the stay home order is trying to do to reduce all of that nonessential travel and movement, reduce the contact rate, reduce the number of infections," Parekh added. "John, that is the most important thing we can do right now to reduce future death."