Texas is next: Epidemiologist explains how the state acted too slowly on coronavirus

The state of Texas could be the next COVID-19 hotspot, an epidemiologist warned on Thursday.

"California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a sweeping statewide stay-at-home order on March 19," ABC News reports. "On the other hand, Texas took a much slower approach, with Gov. Greg Abbott finally instituting an order to close all non-essential businesses on March 31."

ABC News interviewed Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital.

"I think Texas is going to be the next hot spot. We can already see the cases starting to increase, it is start of an exponential rise," Dr. Brownstein explained.

"Any intervention we do now will take weeks to see the impact," he noted.