This week will be a brutal one for Americans. As President Donald Trump put it during the weekend, “There will be a lot of death, unfortunately.”

By Sunday, 312,481 Americans had been diagnosed with COVID-19. More than 8,500 had succumbed to the disease.

As Trump and members of his coronavirus task force emphasized, deaths from COVID-19 are expected to skyrocket this week and later this month.

Ironically, the situation in some cities and states may give other Americans a false sense of security.

Hardest hit thus far has been New York, with more than one-third of the COVID-19 cases nationwide. New York City, with about half the state’s cases, is under siege. It may be that deaths there will be in the triple digits daily this week.

But New York and other devastated areas are reaching the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic. Soon — we hope and pray — numbers of new cases and deaths will begin to decline.

Does that mean we in this area will be out of the woods, too? Emphatically not.

COVID-19 moves through most populations in a predictable bell curve. Most regions of the United States, outside major metropolitan areas, are well on the left side of that curve. Situations there are expected to grow worse, with our crisis periods later than those in places such as New York City.

In other words, while we pray for our fellow Americans in areas where this week will be devastating, we must continue to take steps to minimize the virus’ spread here.

There are strong indications that strategies such as social distancing are having a beneficial effect in many places. Steadfastly persisting in them will grow increasingly difficult — but it is critical.

How important? Watch the COVID-19 death toll in our nation’s most saturated areas this week. Proportionately, that level of fatalities could be coming here, too, later this month. To avoid it, we simply must continue fighting back.