ALBANY — The rate of coronavirus cases in New York is increasing dramatically more than anticipated, and the height of the infections could strike the state in two or three weeks, when as many as 140,000 hospital beds may be needed, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Tuesday.

New York had 25,665 confirmed cases of COVID-19 Tuesday morning, an increase of more than 4,700 cases from Monday evening and more than 10 times the rate of infections in other states, including California and Washington. There have been 210 deaths in New York due to coronavirus. New Jersey's 2,844 confirmed cases is second in the nation.

Cuomo conducted his press conference Tuesday morning at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, which is being converted into a 1,000-bed hospital.

"The increase in the number of cases continues unabated," Cuomo said. "As a matter of fact, the rate of increase has gone up. ... The rate of new infections is doubling about every three days. That is a dramatic increase in the rate of infection. We’re not slowing it, and it is accelerating on its own."

Cuomo's warning that other states can expect to experience the same spike in confirmed coronavirus cases came a few hours before President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, in an interview on the White House lawn with Fox News, said they are anticipating restarting the economy and having people return to work around April 12 — Easter Sunday.

Pence said people would still need to adhere to social distancing measures, including avoiding groups of 10 or more people and eliminating unnecessary travel. He also said that because New York City and the greater metro area around it are the source of roughly 60 percent of the nation's new coronavirus cases, anyone leaving that area — especially for travel to other states — should self-quarantine for 14 days.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded Tuesday by issuing an order requiring anyone traveling to that state from New York, New Jersey or Connecticut to self-quarantine for the same two-week span. Florida law enforcement officials said violation of the order is a misdemeanor offense, and they would take steps to track people flying into Florida airports from those northeast states.

Cuomo said New York's situation is growing dire, and he called on the federal government to provide ventilators from its stockpile of 20,000 to the state of New York. There are 3,234 people hospitalized due to symptoms of COVID-19, including 756 who are in intensive care units.

"New York is the canary in a coal mine. ... We have the highest and fastest rate of infection," Cuomo said. "We're just getting there first."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending 400 ventilators to New York, he said.

"Really, what am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?," he said. "You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators."

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The governor bristled as questions about whether a certain segment of the population could face peril as the cost of restarting the economy with the virus still active.

"My mother is not expendable and your mother is not expendable," he said. "We’re not going to accept a premise that human life is disposable, and we’re not going to put a dollar figure on human life. First order of business is saving lives, period, whatever it costs. ... That's what I think it means to be an American."

At the White House, after Cuomo spoke, Pence told Fox News the federal government has enlisted industries to help produce ventilators, and called on governors across the country to contact local health facilities, including clinics, to identify and gather what he said may be tens of thousands of unused ventilators.

The vice president added that 2,000 ventilators would be shipped to New York on Tuesday, and another 2,000 will be sent on Wednesday. (Cuomo apparently misstated the number when he said FEMA was sending New York "400 ventilators.")

Trump told Fox News that Cuomo had a chance several years ago to buy more than 15,000 ventilators to prepare for a pandemic but declined to do so. The New York Post reported this week that state health officials instead developed a plan for rationing ventilators, rather than buying a stockpile that would have cost more than $570 million.

"I'm not blaming him or anything else, but he's supposed to be buying his own ventilators," Trump said. "We're working very, very hard for the people of New York."

Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for Cuomo, pushed back at the president's statement."He obviously didn’t read the document he’s citing – this was a 5-year-old advisory task force report, which never recommended the state procure ventilators — it merely referenced that New York wouldn't be equipped with enough ventilators for a 1918 flu pandemic," she said.

Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, said the 2016 task force report suggested purchasing nearly 16,000 ventilators for a situation similar to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which lasted nearly three years and is estimated to have killed between 17 million to 50 million people worldwide.

Hospitals are being ordered by Cuomo to increase their capacity of beds by at least 50 percent — and up to 100 percent if possible — as the health care system braces for what may be a critical need to treat tens of thousands of people. Cuomo said he is also exploring converting hotels and college dormitories into makeshift hospitals.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York is rising about 5,000 cases per day, most of those in New York City.

"Those are troubling and astronomical numbers," Cuomo said.

The governor said that Trump is right that the economy cannot sustain a continued shutdown, but he said that public health still comes first.

"Job one has to be save lives," Cuomo said.