As U.S. health officials cautioned Sunday the week ahead could be the “hardest and saddest week of most Americans' lives” due to the coronavirus outbreak, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force is urging citizens to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, told NBC’s “Today” show Monday there could be another “peak” coming down the road.

“Even though we say this is going to be the peak, if we let our foot off the gas and start doing things that are ill-advised we could have another peak in a few weeks. So we have to completely keep our efforts going,” Giroir told the “Today” show. “Everyone is susceptible to this, and everyone needs to follow the precautions that we’ve laid out. Your best precautions, the best way to avoid this, is the physical distance we’ve been talking about for several weeks.”

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Over the weekend, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, asked Americans to stay home, saying this is the moment to “not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy.”

Giroir said the warning doesn’t mean going without necessities, but it does mean all citizens should limit their exposure to the outside world and wear a mask if they need to venture out.

"Don't go every day to the grocery store like many people do. ... Anything you can do to protect yourself to avoid yourself from getting this virus and being in the hospital for a month or potentially facing death, I think it's advised to do that." @HHS_ASH pic.twitter.com/KFvmvkQJlf — TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 6, 2020

Giroir said this is the peak week for hospitalizations and deaths for some of the hardest-hit areas of the country, such as New York, New Jersey and Michigan. He explained the peak “reflects infections that occurred two or three weeks ago.” Other parts of the U.S., such as New Orleans, will see a peak in hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks.

“We’ll see some rolling peaks across the country as the next few weeks unfold,” he said.

The Trump administration has extended guidelines advising Americans to stay at home and avoid gatherings of more than 10 people until April 30.

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Meanwhile, Giroir went on to acknowledge that testing for coronavirus is tight, but said there are “enough tests out there for people who need the test.” He said there would be “a million-plus” tests this week.

“We are not going to have tens of millions of tests this week — but we will have a million-plus tests, plus all the thousands of hospitals who do their own tests. That should be efficient to take care of the load we’re going to see this week,” Giroir said.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 1.28 million people and killed more than 70,000 worldwide. The U.S. leads the world in the number of cases, with more than 337,000 with nearly 10,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

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