'This week, it's going to get bad': Surgeon General says people need to take coronavirus seriously

US surgeon general Jerome Adams on coronavirus: ‘This week it’s going to get bad’

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Video by Today Show

WASHINGTON — U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams warned Monday that the coronavirus outbreak will worsen this week and said that people across the country are not taking the threat seriously enough."I want America to understand this week, it's going to get bad," Adams said in an interview on the "TODAY" show.

The disease is spreading, he said, because many people — especially young people — are not abiding by guidance to stay at home and practice social distancing."Right now, there are not enough people out there who are taking this seriously," he said.

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Adams said that young people are flocking to the beaches in California and people are still heading to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to view the cherry blossom trees that bloom each year. He warned that young people need to understand that they can contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and they can be hospitalized and potentially die from it.

Slideshow by photo services

"Everyone needs to act as if they have the virus right now. So, test or no test. We need you to understand you could be spreading it to someone else. Or you could be getting it from someone else, stay at home," he said.

Asked about growing pressure for President Donald Trump to use the Defense Production Act to force companies to mass produce critical supplies, Adams suggested that it's not necessary at this point.

"Here's the thing that people don't understand. You don't need to compel someone to do something they are already doing," he said, adding that they're already working with companies Honeywell and Hanes which are already producing large quantities of the items needed.

"The other important point is that we're not going to ventilator our way out of this problem. We're not going to treat our way out of this problem," he said. "The way you stop the spread of an infectious disease like this is with mitigation measures and preventing people from getting it in the first place."