NEW YORK — New York City has rapidly become the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, paralyzing a city famous for never standing still as its leaders liken the crisis to war.

The city's bustling streets, thriving public transit and dense population made it uniquely vulnerable to the rapid spread of COVID-19. But other cities, suburbs and rural regions across the nation could see a similarly deadly situation unfold in the near future if swift action is not taken, multiple experts tell USA TODAY.

“New York is getting hit hard, and they’re getting hit first,” Ashish Jha said. The director of the Harvard Global Health Institute listed city after city and state after state that are showing early signs of a similarly devastating outbreak taking hold.

“New York is not an outlier,” Jha said. The virus is on track to hit "every city in America.”

The New York City outbreak keeps growing, with 678 deaths and more than 33,000 confirmed cases as of Sunday night, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.

In addition to the cluster of cases in New York City, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has noted the state's figures are higher than other states' in part because New York state is testing many more people.

According to data released by the New York State Department of Health, New York had administered 155,934 total tests as of Saturday afternoon, an increase of 10,181 – or nearly 7% – from the previous day. The next-closest state was Washington, with 59,206 tests administered as of Saturday afternoon, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

New York has the most confirmed cases in the U.S., exceeding 59,000, almost half the country's cases. The state has seen 965 deaths from COVID-19,an increase of almost 33% from the 728 reported deaths on Saturday.