In a private call to a group of health officials, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, included San Jose in a list of 12 U.S. cities she said were experiencing a concerning rise in coronavirus cases.
“There are cities that are lagging behind and we have new increases in Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, San Jose, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Baltimore, so we're tracking this very closely,” she said during the Wednesday call, according to audio obtained by journalism nonprofit Center for Public Integrity and reported by CNN. “We're working with the state officials to make sure we're responding together, but when you first see that increased test positivity, that is when to start the mitigation efforts.”
The number of new cases in Santa Clara County, where San Jose is located, has recently spiked, with 2,855 cases in the last two weeks. Of the more than 8,500 total cumulative confirmed cases in the county, over 5,400 are in San Jose.
In response, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department issued a statement Thursday acknowledging the recent increase in infections, but said its numbers were still “much lower than those of most metropolitan areas in the state and the country.”
“We are concerned about the increase in cases nationally and believe that this highlights the need for a coordinated national approach to address this pandemic, something the President has failed to put into effect,” the statement read. “We call upon the Trump Administration to finally implement the national strategy our nation needs to contain COVID-19.”
— Matthew Green (@MGreenKQED)