US President Donald Trump has offered federal assistance to New York to increase its ability to test for the coronavirus and, eventually, to restart its economy, as he says that the city has been the epicenter of the outbreak here in America.
"The New York Metropolitan area has been the epicenter of the outbreak here in America and the Federal government has spared no expense or resource to get New Yorkers the care they need and the care they deserve," Trump said at his Oval Office after a "productive" meeting with Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.
"We are with you, New York!" was his last words, motivating the city to continue its fight against the contagious outbreak.
After alternating praise and quarrels for weeks, Cuomo of New York, who met Trump on Tuesday (local time) over discussing testing and aid to states and localities, said that the president had committed to helping New York State double its testing capacity to 40,000 tests a day, a total that would include diagnostic and antibody tests. He did not specify when the state would achieve that goal, The New York Times reported.
"It will take several weeks at best," Cuomo told the media after his meeting with Trump.
"This is an enormous undertaking," he added.
The governor noted that it had taken the state about a month to get to where it can do 20,000 tests day, which he called the "current system at maximum." He and other governors have said that increasing testing capacity was critical to lifting restrictions that have brought many aspects of life to a halt.
A major obstacle to doing more tests, Cuomo has said, is the availability of the reactive chemicals in test kits known as reagents.
Cuomo also said that the President had agreed to a division of responsibility on testing: "The federal government would help states get the materials they needed by getting directly involved in international supply chains, while states handle logistics like where tests would be conducted and how many would be needed," he was quoted as saying.
The daily number of coronavirus deaths in New York increased very slightly, the governor confirmed, with 481 people dying of the virus a day after 478 deaths were reported. There have now been 14,828 virus-related deaths in the state.
Other measures of the virus's spread in the state were also flat or falling, he said.
Now, there are almost 2.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, and the U.S. is reporting more cases than any other country. Lives have been turned upside down - particularly among communities disproportionately impacted by the outbreak - and more than 40,000 in the U.S. have died.
( With inputs from ANI )