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Coronavirus Watch: 'This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment'

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As the nation braces for what looks to be the worst week yet, United States Surgeon General Jerome Adams did not back down when addressing the severity of coronavirus' impact on the nation. 

"This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly," Adams said in a Sunday interview with Fox News. "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localized. It’s going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that." 

Importantly, Adams reinforced that people and the government can still "change the trajectory of this epidemic" with proper social distancing practices. 

This is the Paste BN Network's Coronavirus Watch newsletter, bringing you the latest information, as of 2 p.m. ET.

  • White House coronavirus task force official Dr. Deborah Birx warned Saturday that deaths could increase significantly this coming week in hotspots like New York, Detroit and Louisiana.
  • Even with a projected increase in death rates, the number of cases could soon drop in hard-hit areas, Birx said. With proper mitigation efforts like social distancing, "the cases are going to start to go down, but the mortality will be a lag behind that," she said.
  • In New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the number of deaths, hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions have slightly dipped in recent days. He added that it was still too early to determine if the state reached the "apex" of its patient curve.
  • With more than 324,000 infected, the U.S. has nearly 200,000 more confirmed cases than any other country in the world, per the Johns Hopkins coronavirus database. The U.S. death toll was climbing towards 10,000 on Sunday, with more than 9,100 deaths reported as of 2 p.m. ET.
  • Worldwide, there have been more than 1.2 million cases confirmed and 67,000 deaths. 
  • Governors have warned of dire shortages of ventilators — a point of contention between states and President Donald Trump. Governors in Michigan and Illinois have expressed frustration over states competing with one another for the devices.  
  • The Pentagon will be deploying more than 1,100 medical staffers to New York City, most of which will be based at the converted Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told CNN on Sunday that the facility will soon be the "largest hospital in the United States." 
  • Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christians around the world, was affected by the virus as churches were mostly empty. Pope Francis held Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Basilica in front of a small group of people. 

Here are two Paste BN newsletters you should know about:

We also have a Facebook group where you can connect with others and get answers to your coronavirus questions. 

Thank you all for subscribing. We appreciate you trusting the Paste BN Network when the need for accurate information is as critical as ever. 

– Jay Cannon, Paste BN Network and Wires Editor, @JayTCannon on Twitter

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