United States officials say this will be a rough week regarding the coronavirus, but they hope the outbreak will ease shortly afterward.

President Donald Trump says the United States is making progress in the war against COVID-19.

"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.

The number of known cases in the United States is doubling about every five days, according to Johns Hopkins University. New York is the hardest hit state so far.

MORE: LIVE BLOG - Coronavirus updates from the tri-state area and beyond 

MORE: TRACKER: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut coronavirus cases and deaths 

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

United States 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. So we got to make sure we're always talking about a two-and-a-half week lag,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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

There are nearly 1.3 million confirmed cases globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. There are more than 69,000 reported deaths worldwide.

PHOTOS: The world copes with the spread of COVID-19