The former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said that the U.S. is likely to face even bigger challenges in the road ahead as coronavirus cases continue to climb across the country. “We’re going to get through it,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, according to CNBC. “We’re probably in the 7^th inning of the acute phase of this pandemic right now, but the hardest part is still ahead.”

Gottlieb said that COVID-19 cases are increasing daily along with the number of hospitalizations from the dreaded disease. “It looks like we’re entering a pretty difficult period right now,” he said. “The cases are accelerating around the country. There’s really no backstop now.”

The Institutes for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine predicted that the U.S. will see around 171,000 more deaths from COVID-19 by February 2021. That represents a 78% increase in mortality, according to The Hill. The total of number of deaths projected by February was 389,087.

“We expect deaths to stop declining and begin increasing in the next one to two weeks,” the researchers wrote, according to CNN. “The winter surge appears to have begun somewhat later than the surge in Europe. Daily deaths will reach over 2,000 a day in January even with many states reimposing mandates before the end of the year.”

Gottlieb said that while antibody treatments like the one President Trump received may be valuable in treating COVID-19, there are not enough drugs available to help all Americans. He added that he expects the worst of the pandemic will be over by January but emphasized that it will take time for a vaccine to have full preventive effects, even if one is available by that time, according to CNBC.

Gottlieb pointed out that the first people to receive vaccines will be the elderly and high-risk populations.

“We’re looking at scenario when the first tranche of people to get vaccinated aren’t going to have protective immunity from the vaccine until February or March,” he said. “We’re going to have to get through this next wave without the benefit of protective immunity from a vaccine.”