During a call with governors Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, warned Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear that his state would likely see an increasing number of deaths from coronavirus in the coming two weeks.
“We agree that test positivity is going down, and we see that usually predates cases going down,” Birx said, but added that “we do see a probably continuous rise in mortality over the next two weeks, and I think that’s really important for the other states that are in this category to not let your citizens get discouraged that they’re not seeing progress, because you are seeing progress it’s just the whole site takes about six – eight weeks to move through that increased test positivity, increased cases and increasing mortality.”
“Arizona moved through that,” she told Beshear and the other governors, “we believe that you also will.”
Birx said the increased mortality “shows how important it is to be aggressive on the front end to have an impact on mortality on the back end.”