“What we have now is essentially 3 New York,” says Dr. Birx – Deadline

While it took 45 days to scale from 1 million to 2 million coronavirus cases in the United States, it only took 16 days for infections to jump from 3 million to, as of Thursday, 4 million.

How did that happen?

“What we have right now is essentially three New Yorkers,” said White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx at Today Friday, referring to the ancient epicenter of the pandemic in the nation, if not the world.

On Thursday, the California, Texas, and Florida hot spots accounted for a third of new cases reported across the country. Earlier in the week, California passed New York as the state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country, surpassing 400,000 infections.

Florida found its own bleak distinction from New York, beating the Big Apple as the state with the highest single-day gain in new cases, at 15,299 last week.

And in Texas, an overwhelmed county near the border announced this week that it was creating committees to review patient cases and send loved ones “home to die.”

“Unfortunately, Starr County Memorial Hospital has limited resources and our physicians will have to decide who gets treatment and who is sent home to die for loved ones,” County Judge Eloy Vera wrote in a Facebook post Thursday. . “This is what we did not want our community to experience.”

On Wednesday, Birx warned of escalating crises in 11 cities, hoping to spur effective action before the pandemic exaggerates efforts there. She said Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St. Louis must take “aggressive” measures immediately to avoid becoming the next hot spots.

“Until you can see that explosion, it is difficult for people to understand how deeply you have to suppress,” said Birx. “That is why we call the next group of cities where we see early warning signs, because if you make changes now, you will not become a Phoenix.”