Coronavirus: The biggest week yet

There’s going to be a lot of attention on numbers this week and next, with officials warning that some major cities will hit their peak death and hospitalization rates. 

This comes as the US has officially reached more than 11,000 deaths. Still, there may be more deaths from coronavirus than we realize, as the CDC noted some cases "may be misclassified as pneumonia deaths in the absence of positive test results.”

States such as New York, New Jersey and Michigan are bracing for busy weeks, and doing all they can to prepare their hospitals.

There is some good news, though. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the number of deaths due to coronavirus in his state has remained “effectively flat for two days.” That means social distancing could be working.

But now is not the time to celebrate. It is time to double down and keep maintaining strict efforts to keep the virus under control.

The governor is concerned -- and rightfully so -- that there is a “danger” in being “over-confident.” And that’s not just a lesson for New York. Now is the time for everyone to buckle down.

We have to remember that until testing ramped up in New York, we didn't really have a good sense of just how widespread the coronavirus was. We didn’t know how much it was spreading in communities. We need to make sure we don't miss that in other places, either.