'This is no time to act stupidly': Governor insists New York will not rush to reopen

'I don't know how else to say it ... More people will die if we are not smart'

Governor Andrew Cuomo says that New York will not rush to reopen, and will only do so based on facts and not political pressure.

"We make a bad move, it's going to set us back ... Frankly, this is no time to act stupidly. Period. I don't know how else to say it," he said at his daily coronavirus pandemic briefing.

"More people will die if we are not smart."

He implored local officials not to make decisions to loosen lockdown restrictions based on political pressure.

The governor also reported that the state's daily death rate "seems to be on a gentle decline", with 474 deaths recorded on Tuesday, 28 of which were in nursing homes.

Total hospitalisations in New York state have also continued to fall, but the governor emphasised that if we are reckless today that number will go back up.

Mr Cuomo announced that the number of state tests would double, setting an ambitious target of 40,000 tests per day, taking all labs and machines to their capacity.

In conjunction with New Jersey and Connecticut, a Tristate "Tracing Army" will be formed to contact trace those people with positive test results in order to inform and isolate those that have come into contact with them.

Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg has volunteered to help develop the contact tracing program, which will be run with partners Johns Hopkins and global public health organisation Vital Strategies.

By taking a Tristate approach Mr Cuomo said that they hoped to blur government jurisdictions and work together to effectively trace people that live and work in different parts of the region.

The governor said that the program would draw on the 35,000 students studying medical-related subjects at both the City University of New York and the State University of New York to serve as tracers.

Referring to his White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, the governor said that political differences were put aside in the "productive" meeting.

"Because who really cares? ... Get the job done. I don't care if you like him or he likes you. We're not setting up a possible marriage here," the governor said.

During the meeting Mr Cuomo reiterated calls from all governors for relief funding from the federal government to the states to maintain services such as police, fire and schools, but also said that Congress must include it in legislation.

Governor Cuomo also reported that the president has agreed to waive the share of the costs of the coronavirus response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that New York would pay — costs are usually split 75:25 between FEMA and the state affected by the emergency.

As of Wednesday, New York state has 251,690 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and has recorded 14,828 deaths.