“The way we get ahead of it is, I want people to assume that we’re overreacting because if it looks like you’re overreacting you’re probably doing the right thing,” he added.

Fauci reiterated that public health officials are currently focused on a two-pronged strategy for coronavirus.

“One is preventing new infections from coming in and the other is containment and mitigation within the country and it is correct that infections are going to go up, our job is to make sure it doesn’t do the maximum peak and actually blunts,” he said.