New York coronavirus death toll surpasses 1,500 as nearly HALF tests processed in last 24h come back positive

New York has 75,795 confirmed cases of coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday, revealing that, of the 18,000 tests processed in the previous 24 hours, 9,000 came back positive. Some 1,550 people have died with the virus since the epidemic began, a single-day increase of 332. New York City has been hit particularly hard - 5,686 of the new cases are located within its five boroughs.

Some 10,929 people diagnosed with the virus are currently hospitalized in the state. Cuomo, who previously warned of the possibility of running out of ventilators, said he has ordered 17,000 of the machines from China at a cost of about $25,000 each.

The governor believes the outbreak will peak within the next three weeks. “The range on the apex is seven to 21 days from now,” he told a news conference on Tuesday. Emphasizing the importance of testing, he revealed New York is developing its own antibody test and is currently using a form of saliva testing. The state has conducted nearly 200,000 tests, he said.

While Cuomo called for “private and public, upstate and downstate” hospitals to function as a single unit, he has been criticized for the high number of hospital closures and consolidations that have occurred during his tenure as governor.