Mississippi’s top health official said Monday cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus are likely to “skyrocket” in the fall but that cases would go down if everyone followed social distancing guidelines and wore masks in public.

“If everyone followed the guidelines, if everyone wore masks in public, if everyone were cautious, it would absolutely go down, without a doubt,” said Dr. Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi State Health Officer. “But people are eager to be normal and we have a new normal, we have to embrace the new normal and find a way to live with this thing.

Dobbs said coronavirus is not going away soon.

“We’re going to have cases going forward as far as the eye can seen until we get to the fall when there’s a really high likelihood that it’s just going to skyrocket, and we’ll be having other challenges,” he said. “So we’ve just go to be prepared and we make sure that we reinforce the message that people don’t need to let their guard down.”

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he agreed with Dobbs’ concern.

“There is a lot of concern,” he said. “That in the fall could bring a new surge of cases.”