The United States is at the beginning of what may be a pretty tough week, but doctors and elected leaders say they hope the outbreak could ease shortly after that.

 

President Donald Trump says the country is making progress in the fight against coronavirus.

VIRUS TRACKER: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut coronavirus cases and deaths 
MORE: LIVE BLOG - Coronavirus updates from the tri-state area and beyond
MORE: New Jersey Coronavirus Dashboard 
FULL COVERAGE: Coronavirus Pandemic

"We are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully in the not too-distant future, we'll be very proud of the job we all did," says President Trump.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of known cases in the U.S. is doubling about every five days, with New York the hardest so far.

"The number of deaths over the past few days has been dropping for the first time,” says New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “What is the significance of that? It's too early to tell."

U.S. health officials say the country doesn't have control of the disease yet, and that the next two weeks are crucial in possibly flattening the curve.

 

"What you're hearing about potential 'light at the end of the tunnel' doesn't take away from the fact that tomorrow and the next day is going to look really bad,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “So, we got to make sure. We're always talking about a two-and-a-half-week lag."

Dr. Fauci also says it's important to get the virus under control globally or it could become a seasonal problem, and that the development of a vaccine would help the U.S. be better prepared in case of a resurgence.

"You can never be happy when so many people are dying, but we're going be very proud of the job we did to keep the death down to a minimum," says President Trump.