President Donald Trump said Tuesday at the White House that New York got off to a “very late start” on containing and controlling the coronavirus.

“For whatever reason, New York got to a very late start, and you see what happens when you get off to a late start,” Trump said.

Trump spoke about New York after Dr. Deborah Birx showed a graph of the skyrocketing number of cases in the state, as it leads the nation in the number of cases and deaths.

“The problem New York has is New York started late, but the other ones didn’t start so late,” he said, referring to a chart. “New York is also more complicated for obvious reasons, but it got a late start.”

Birx noted that states like California and Washington state quickly instituted social distancing practices for their communities, which appear to have dramatically slowed the spread.

“Now we know that that makes a big difference,” she said. “Early, as Dr. Fauci said, if you wait until you see it, it is too late.”