Founder of Microsoft Bill Gates called for a nationally mandated pause on “business as usual” to “save lives” during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Until the case numbers start to go down across America — which could take 10 weeks or more — no one can continue business as usual or relax the shutdown,” Gates wrote in a Tuesday column in the Washington Post. “Any confusion about this point will only extend the economic pain, raise the odds that the virus will return, and cause more deaths.”