About one in five new cases of coronavirus reported around the world came from just three U.S. states — Florida, Texas and California, a new NBC News tally revealed Tuesday.
The 27,574 cases recorded in those states Monday accounted for 18.9 percent of the global total and represented more than a third of the 61,751 new cases reported in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the two-week death total in Texas was up 99 percent over the previous two weeks.
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In Florida, the two-week death total rose by nearly 84 percent and in California it jumped by nearly 27 percent.
As of Tuesday morning, there were 3,386,164 confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. and the death toll was 136,472.
The staggering new sums emerged on the same day that Admiral Brett Giroir, the Assistant Secretary of Health, insisted on "Today" that “we’re turning the corner on the current outbreak.”
“We are all very concerned about the outbreak,” Giroir said. “About half the cases are in four states, Texas, California, Florida, and Arizona. But we are in a much different place now than we were several months ago, a much better place.”
Maybe. But 41 states have seen an increase in cases over the last two weeks and eight states have seen a spike of more than 100 percent over the last 14 days, according to NBC News’ Medical Unit.
And when Vice President Mike Pence arrived Tuesday in Louisiana to meet with local officials about the pandemic, Attorney General Mike Landry was not there to greet him on the tarmac because he has tested positive, local media reported.
“Out of an overabundance of caution with the Vice President coming to our state, I was tested for Cornavirus,” Landry wrote in an email to staffers. “Though experiencing no symptoms, I tested positive for COVID-19.”
There was also a smidgen of troubling news out of New York, a state that back in April was posting Texas-sized case numbers and since then has succeeded in flattening the coronavirus curve.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported that 1.5 percent of the 60,045 COVID-19 tests performed on Monday came back positive.That is the highest positive rate in the state since June 5.
Cuomo also reported five more coronavirus deaths on Monday.
Two days earlier, the New York State Department of Health reporting there were zero COVID-19 deaths on Saturday the first time that has happened since March 13.