As several states in the US plan and prepare for re-opening, Bill Gates shared his opinion on the matter with CNN on Monday morning.

“Successful reopening will happen in stages,” the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft said. “This will require critical thinking about which elements of society are essential to get back to work.”

With the total number of Corona virus cases in the US nearing one million and the death count of over 54,000, Gates urges to remind the states that are preparing to lift social distancing that just because some areas have very little outbreak does not mean they are not at risk. His foundation has studied pandemics for years leading him to his concern that if states re-open too soon, a second wave of infection will hit just as deadly as the first.

“When planning for staged re-openings, states should focus on “high value” segments of the economy such as schools, manufacturing and construction, and should figure out how to operate those things with masks and social distancing,” said Gates.  “Once some schools and businesses get back to work, communities should continue to track the effects on infection rates.”

During the interview with CNN, Gates also stated that any areas that reduce social distancing and quarantine too soon will most likely have exponential growth in cases and will eventually be compared to New York in terms of case and death count while slowing down the recovery of the pandemic for the entire country.