New York City deaths exceed 9/11

New York state on Tuesday recorded its biggest one-day increase in coronavirus deaths: 731, bringing the state total to nearly 5,500. In New York City, more than 4,000 people have died of the disease, exceeding the total of those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the one day jump a “lagging indicator,” reflecting the number of severely ill people hospitalized earlier. “Right now, we’re projecting that we are reaching a plateau in the total number of hospitalizations,” he said. “And you can see the growth and you can see it starting to flatten. Again, this is a projection. It still depends on what we do.”

How are things in the rest of the country? The U.S. death toll is approaching 13,000, with more than 400,000 confirmed cases and more than 22,500 recoveries, according to Johns Hopkins University. Other hotspots include New Orleans and Detroit. A new report reveals that more than 700 hospital workers in the Detroit area have tested positive for COVID-19.

Dig deeper: Read Emily Belz’s report from New York on battle-tested healthcare workers on the front line.