Dr. Deborah Birx announced on Monday that the coronavirus infection rate in New York City is five times the rate of other US cities.

Doctors are finding that over one-fourth of submitted specimens are testing positive from the the New York City area.

DEBORAH BIRX: "The New York metro area…[has] an attack rate close to 1 in 1000. This is 5x what the other areas are seeing there…We're finding that 28% of the submitted specimens are positive…it’s less than 8% in the rest of the country." Live updates: https://t.co/JQTJdVz0lp pic.twitter.com/2ae1NKkynR — JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) March 23, 2020

This comes after Mayor Bill DeBlasio told New Yorkers to “mostly go about their daily lives – sending children to school, frequenting the city’s businesses” as coronavirus was spreading in the community.

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The Washington Examiner reported.