NEW YORK, March 29 (KUNA) -- The US state of New York has reported 237 new deaths related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours, its highest daily death record since the outbreak of the deadly virus.
In his daily news conference, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the number of confirmed cases jumped by 7,200 in one day, putting the total of confirmed cases at 59,514 cases as of Sunday.
More than half of the cases, or 33,768, are in New York City, according to the latest figures from the city and state.
About 8,500 people are currently hospitalized, an increase of 16 percent from Saturday to Sunday. Of those, 2,037 are in intensive care units, which are equipped with ventilators.
He projected that that the crisis facing New York could grow even worse.
"I don't think there's any way to look at those numbers," Cuomo said, "without seeing thousands of people pass away." Cuomo also extended his order for all nonessential workers to stay home until April 15.
For his part, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the State has a one-week supply of medical supplies to care for any New Yorker who is sick.
"We have enough supplies to get to a week from today, with the exception of ventilators, we're going to need at least several hundred more ventilators very quickly," de Blasio told a news conference.
"We are going to need a reinforcement." According to the CNN health tally, there are at least 130,156 confirmed coronavirus cases and about 2,298 reported deaths across the US with the majority of the cases and deaths being in New York.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci told CNN that about 56 percent of all the new infections in the US are coming from the New York City area.
On the CDC travel advisory, he said "what was trying to be done is to get people, unless there's necessary travel, so all nonessential travel, just hold off, because what you don't want is people traveling from that area to other areas of the country and inadvertently and innocently infecting other individuals." Fauci also expects that the coronavirus could kill between 100,000 and 200,000 people in the US and see "millions" of cases.
"Looking at what we're seeing now, I would say between 100,000 and 200,000 ... deaths. I mean, we're going to have millions of case," he remarked. (end) asf.si.ibi