NYC tops 200,000 coronavirus cases in just three months and deaths surpass 21,500

New York City on Sunday topped 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, just three months after the first person in the city tested positive for COVID-19.  

There were 56 COVID-19 deaths in the state on Saturday, ‘which in this absurd reality we live in is very, very good news,’ Governor Cuomo said Sunday. 

While noting a slight uptick in the three-day average of new coronavirus hospital admissions, Cuomo said the number is declining overall across the region. 

The confirmed death toll in the city is 16,848 with a further 4,721 probable deaths. 

It comes as NYC, the epicenter of the virus in the US, prepares for the first phase of easing lockdown. 

That will see construction and manufacturing workers return to their jobs along with curbside retail.  Mayor Bill de Blasio says he expects that to happen in the first half of June. 

The confirmed death toll in the city is 16,848 with a further 4,721 probable deaths

And in preparation for that on June 8, Gov. Cuomo said Saturday he will focus this week on providing more testing and more supplies like masks to neighborhoods where infection rates remain high. 

Office workers in the city will not return until the second phase and even then, businesses have to meet strict requirements to keep staff safe. 

The U.S. death toll from coronavirus topped 100,000 on Wednesday, a startling milestone just four months after the country’s first case was confirmed.

It remains the highest death toll from the virus in the world and surpasses the U.S. military combat fatalities suffered in every conflict since the Korean War.

As of Sunday there were more than 104,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US. The figure is more than double the deaths in any other country.

It is a figure that President Trump initially stated would never be hit as he claimed in February that the virus would go away itself as warmer weather began.

He later stepped back on these comments saying that keeping the death toll to 100,000 would be a sign that the administration had ‘done a very good job’.

Mayor Bill de Blasio says he expects lockdowns to be eased in the first half of June

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, pictured, expressed hope Sunday that the state is approaching a level where fatalities are perhaps not eliminated but are very few

With coronavirus deaths continuing to decline in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed hope Sunday that the state is approaching a level where fatalities are perhaps not eliminated but are very few. 

Cuomo devoted most of his daily coronavirus briefing Sunday to discussing the ongoing protests against police brutality which, while mostly peaceful, have spurred violent outbursts that left police cars burned, businesses vandalized and hundreds of people arrested from New York City to Buffalo.

He speculated that the unrest might have been enhanced, in part, by pent-up frustration and agitation over coronavirus lockdowns. 

: People gather to protest the death of George Floyd Sunday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn

Cuomo devoted most of his daily coronavirus briefing Sunday to discussing the ongoing protests against police brutality. Brooklyn is pictured Sunday 

Cuomo also confirmed that dentists statewide can reopen Monday.

The governor said that dentists’ offices will be subject to state guidance on best practices for safety and social distancing. 

It comes as the Cuomo administration slowly eases restrictions on economic activity in the state, region by region and industry by industry.