The US surgeon general said Monday that the United States is about where Italy was two weeks ago in the coronavirus struggle, a sign that infections are expected to rise in America, AP reports.

"We are at a critical inflection point in this country, people,” Surgeon General Dr Jerome Adams told Fox News. “When you look at the projections, there's every chance that we could be Italy.”

Yet he said the U.S. has opportunities to mitigate the public health crisis.

Two weeks ago, Italy had 1,700 cases of coronavirus and had reported 34 deaths. Now, Italy is reporting an estimated 25,000 cases and more than 1,800 deaths. About 3,800 cases have been reported in the United States and so far, more than 65 people have died from coronavirus.