Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is in hot water again after he said the decision to close California schools for the remainder of the school year was "way overkill," and disagreed with the date the White House set to extend coronavirus social distancing guidelines.

"The schools were just canceled out here in California, which is way overkill," Nunes said Tuesday evening on Fox News. "It's possible kids could've went back to school in two weeks to four weeks, but they just canceled the rest of the schools."

Nunes also questioned the date President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force set to ease up on restrictions that currently prevent many from going to work. The task force extended its social distancing guidelines through April 30. Trump had previously hinted he may lift the guidelines on Easter.

"We have to focus on keeping people employed. I will tell you this, if we don't start to get people back to work in this country over the next week to two weeks—I don't believe we can wait until the end of April," Nunes said. "I just don't know of any economy that's ever survived where you unplug the entire economy and expect things to go back and be normal."

He also said that more people may die from other causes while "staying at home, not taking care of themselves" than they would from the coronavirus.

Nunes' comments come just over two weeks after he said Americans should "go to your local pub" despite the advice of health experts at the time to avoid public gatherings.

“One of the things you can do if you’re healthy—you and your family—it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant. Likely you can get in easily," Nunes said in an interview the morning of March 16.

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"Let’s not hurt the working people in this country that are relying on wages and tips to keep their small business going. So, don’t run to the grocery store and buy, you know, $4,000 of food. Go, you know, go to your local pub," he added.

Later that day, the California governor called for the closure of all bars, wine bars, breweries and pubs, and called for restaurants to reduce their occupancy by half, and the White House issued its guidance to stay away from groups of 10 or more and use drive-through or delivery instead of going into restaurants.

Nunes later walked back his comments, claiming that he was encouraging people to utilize drive-through options.

The social distancing guidelines are aimed to slow the spread of the coronavirus and minimize the strain on health care resources, but it has had a major impact on the economy in recent weeks.

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The United States death toll from the coronavirus currently stands at over 4,400, while the total number of reported cases surpasses 200,000 and continues to grow daily. On Tuesday the White House task force said between 100,000 and 240,000 could succumb to the virus by the end of the year – making it one of the nation’s worst public health crises – and that without intervention strategies, as many 2.2 million could have died.

Nunes on Tuesday said he was "optimistic" about certain anti-malaria drugs to treat the coronavirus, two of which were granted emergency clearance by the FDA to use after Trump touted their potential.

"So the more tests that are out there, the more people getting testing, let's learn about the treatments," Nunes said. "Let's get good data as to who is being impacted and let's figure out a way to get back to work."

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Contributing: Savannah Behrmann