Bill Gates offered his predictions during an interview with CNN on Sunday

It came as the US set new records for new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths over a seven-day period.

'Sadly, the next four to six months could be the worst of the epidemic,' Gates said.

He went on to signal support for coronavirus-related business restrictions.

'Bars and restaurants in most of the country will be closed as we go into this wave, and I think sadly that's appropriate,' he said.

Gates said he thinks the US will become more 'normal' by summertime after a vaccine is rolled out.

He also expressed optimism about Joe Biden's incoming administration.

Bill Gates says he expects that coronavirus-related lockdowns could drag on into 2022 with restaurants closing their doors for the next six months.

The billionaire Microsoft founder offered his predictions during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday as the US set new records for new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths over a seven-day period.

Asked how bad he thinks the COVID-19 crisis will get in the next few months before vaccines become widely available, Gates said: 'Well, sadly, the next four to six months could be the worst of the epidemic.

'Forecast shows over 200,000 additional deaths. If we would follow the rules in terms of wearing masks and not mixing, we could avoid a large percentage of those deaths. So in the near term, it's bad news.'

He went on to signal his support for drastic restrictions - including California Governor Gavin Newsom's latest stay-at-home order affecting more than 75 percent of the state.

'Well certainly mask-wearing has essentially no downsides,' Gates said. 'Bars and restaurants in most of the country will be closed as we go into this wave, and I think sadly that's appropriate.'

'You don't want somebody you love to be the last to die of coronavirus,' he added.

Gates noted that deciding whether to keep schools open is more 'complicated' than other businesses because the benefits of in-person learning are high while transmission rates among children are low.

'Tradeoffs will have to be made, but the next four to six months really call on us to do our best because we can see that this will end,' he said.

Tapper then probed: 'When do you think life will fully return to what we thought of as normal back in January? No masks, no social distancing, no other protective measures necessary.'

Gates replied: 'Certainly, by the summer we will be way closer to normal than we are now - but even through early 2022, unless we help other countries get rid of this disease and we get high vaccinations rates in our country, the risk of reintroduction will be there.

'And, of course, the global economy will be slowed down, which hurts America economically in a pretty dramatic way.

'So, we will have, starting in the summer, about nine months where a few things like big public gatherings will still be restricted.

'But now we can see that somewhere between 12 to 18 months, we have a chance, if we manage it well, to get back to normal.'

At another point in the interview Tapper mentioned how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced a new $250million pledge to fight the pandemic, on top of the $1billion it had already committed.

Gates said that funding would be focused on creating a vaccine for use not just in the US but around the world.

He also addressed rampant online conspiracy theories that his foundation was working with Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH, to inject microchips into people with the vaccine - saying that such rumors 'surprised' him.