"This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned on Fox News on Sunday.

"It's going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that," he continued.

The United States is entering what a senior official warned would be the "hardest" week of the coronavirus crisis as the death toll surpassed 9,000 and the total infections are over 30,000, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

President Donald Trump also expressed his concern, saying this week and next will probably be the toughest in the fight against coronavirus and that "there will be a lot of death."

New York, the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, reported on Sunday that for the first time in a week, deaths had fallen slightly from the day before. But there were still nearly 600 new fatalities and more than 7,300 new cases in the state.

Stay-at-home holdouts

Most states have ordered residents to stay home except for essential trips to slow the spread of the virus in the United States

But eight states, all of them with Republican governors, have yet to order residents to stay home: Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Georgia, which has recorded 6,600 cases and more than 200 deaths, ordered residents to stay home but then allowed some beaches to reopen.

Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson defended his refusal to order statewide restrictions, saying the situation was being watched closely and that his more "targeted approach" was still slowing the spread of the virus.

Adams, the surgeon general, said governors who had not issued month-long stay-at-home orders should at least consider one for the upcoming week.

White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed.

(With input from Reuters)