'Millions need to be tested': New York reports 777 deaths in 24 hours

Seven hundred and seventy-seven people died in New York in the last 24 hours due to the coronavirus pandemic bringing the state'sdeath toll to 7,884 as governor Cuomo said testing was needed for millions "in a matter of weeks, not months".

Also Read:UK COVID-19 death toll rises to record 980 fatalities; 8,958 people dead

"We have 19 million people in the state of New York. You'd want to start by testing everyone, right, you'd want to test people who would be coming back to work, test people going into nursing homes test healthcare workers," the New York governor said.

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New York governor Andrew Cuomo said that the number of coronavirus related hospitalizations was down in New York but added that "we continue to lose a tremendous number of lives and endure great pain as a state."

The United States has 467,184 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins coronavirus resource centre's live tracker

"Even with our high capacity and high performance on testing it's still not enough," the governor said, adding, "it's not enough if you want to reopen on a meaningful scale and reopen quickly, so the testing front is going to be a challenge for us."

The governor said he was "cautiously optimistic" that the COVID-19 infection rates were slowing. Cuomo said that the total lives lost due to the virus was now 7,844 while comparing it to the September 11 attacks in 2001 in New York in which 2,753 New Yorkers were killed.

New York governor said that the fact that coronavirus situation should exceed the 9/11 casualties was "beyond my capacity to fully appreciate."

The United States has 467,184 confirmed cases of coronavirus