According to the latest citywide figures, New Yorkers have been dying at a rate of one every 17 minutes for the past two days. Further, 84 people have died from the coronavirus in the city on Thursday and Friday, as the number of positive cases and of seriously ill patients also rose.

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Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday that the death toll for coronavirus in the state has reached 519, up from 385 fatalities recorded the previous day.

"It is going to keep increasing, and that is the worst thing I could possibly tell the New York state's people," said the governor. COVID-19 reports are almost doubling, and "that's still bad news," he said at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, where the US Army Corps of Engineers are temporarily building a hospital.

New York state, which is the epicenter of the U.S. pandemic, reported 7,377 new cases overnight, raising the state total to 44,635. In New Orleans, Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit, hotspots have also emerged, and early-hit states like California and Washington continue to combat the virus.

Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that vital resources could run out by Sunday, April 5 to battle the outbreak at the country's epicenter, as medical facilities remain totally overwhelmed.

The coronavirus has infected 5,250 people in the highly populated city, and in the past 24 hours alone, the number of patients seeking intensive care has risen considerably. A total of 1,175 patients are in ICU treatment, a rise of 37.6 percent from the 850 who received such care as of Thursday evening.

The number of coronavirus cases in the state has risen over 40,000, the highest in the world by far. Cuomo cited the number of people hospitalized 20 or 25 days ago, who have since been on a ventilator to justify the rising death figures.

On Friday Cuomo extended school closures in the state by two weeks to April 15 as the number of cases of coronavirus continues to increase. The state currently has 53,000 hospital beds, but will need 140,000 of them in the next three weeks as the epidemic is expected to peak in New York, he said.

Mayor Blasio said on Friday morning that healthcare workers are "going through hell" at several New York City hospitals, and again pleaded with the federal government for more ventilators. De Blasio has warned New Yorkers that before things get better, the situation will deteriorate further.

TagsNew York Virus, Coronavirus, Death Toll