Photo credit: The New York Times

New York’s daily coronavirus deaths dropped to 540, the lowest in almost two weeks, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.

But he warned that the recent improvement should be viewed with some caution, and easing the lockdown depends on dramatically increased testing.

“The more you test, the more information, the more you can reopen society,” he said.

New York state which is the epicentre of the epidemic in the United States reported 7,090 new cases Saturday for a total of 236,732.

The governor also said New York and other states were not equipped to reach the required scale of testing without help from the federal government, which he said could better coordinate supplies from places like China.

“We cannot do it without federal help,” Cuomo said. “I don’t do China relations, I don’t do international supply chain.”

New York’s death toll presently stands at3,362. The number of deaths reported Saturday was lower than the 630 reported the previous day and was the first time it had dropped below 600 in 12 days. The highest number was 799 deaths on April 9.