No fewer than 10,056 people have now died of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York, says the state governor, Mr Andrew Cuomo.
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Speaking at his daily news briefing on Monday, Cuomo said the five-digit milestone was reached following the death of another 671 people overnight.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the New York death toll accounts for nearly half of the total US fatalities of 21,662, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University.
Cuomo said he was “hit hard on a personal level” by the death count crossing the 10,000 mark on Easter Sunday.
“I’m Catholic. Easter Sunday is the high holiday… To have this happen over this weekend is really, really especially tragic.
“And they are all in our thoughts and prayers,” he said referring to the victims and their families.
According to the governor, the number of confirmed cases stood at 195,031 as of the end of Tuesday, nearing another milestone of 200,000.
However, Cuomo said the “worst is over” and that there was a ray of hope in hospitalistion rates, which he said had remained flat.
He stated that 1,958 new patients were hospitalised on Sunday, the first time the daily figure has fallen below 2,000 since March 29.
The total number of hospitalisations also remained roughly flat at 18,825, a 24-hour net increase of just 118, according to him.
NAN reports that New York is the worst-hit state in the U.S. with no fewer than 195,031 infections, representing 35 per cent of the 555,371 confirmed cases nationwide.