ALBANY — As new cases and deaths from COVID-19 increased, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday ordered non-essential construction projects to stop, and a state agency told parole officers that 1,100 parole violators who are being held in jails and prisons across New York will be released.

The parolees, who include 600 in New York City jails, will be returned to supervised release, according to people briefed about the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision's order.

The Legal Aid Society said Friday that it went to court in the Bronx this week and secured the immediate release of 106 individuals who were being held at Rikers Island on non-criminal technical parole violations, many who due to their age or underlying health conditions are vulnerable to death or serious illness if infected with COVID-19.

Deaths due to the coronavirus in New York rose from 385 on Thursday afternoon to 519 Friday morning.

The governor also announced Friday that schools across the state will remain closed at least another two weeks, until April 15. He is waiving a requirement that school years must include 180 days of instruction.

The number of New York's confirmed cases of the virus also rose by more than 7,375 — from 37,285 to 44,635. That tally includes people who have recovered from the illness, a number the state has not been able to pinpoint.

"That (death rate) is going to continue to go up, and that is the worst news that I can tell the people of the state of New York," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said. "New York is still the most affected state both in terms of number of cases and in terms of deaths."

There are 6,481 people hospitalized from COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 1,583 are in intensive care units — an increase of 290 overnight Thursday.

"There is good news in that the rate of the increase is slowing," Cuomo said. "But the number of cases are still going up."

The United States now has 85,996 cases, more than any other nation.

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The governor's executive order suspending "non-essential" construction will allow essential and emergency construction to continue, including projects on roads, bridges, transit facilities, hospitals, affordable housing and homeless shelters.

The governor delivered his news conference at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, which has been transformed into a 1,000-bed hospital. His audience included numerous New York National Guard members, whom the governor addressed directly in his remarks.

"Every time I’ve called out the National Guard, I’ve said the same thing to you: I promise you that I will not ask you to do anything that I could not do myself," he said. "The same is true here. We’re going to do this, and we’re going to do this together."

Cuomo told the military personnel that a decade from now, "You’ll be proud that you showed up. ... When other people played it safe, you had the courage to show up and you had the skill and the professionalism to make a difference and save lives."

The governor said he hopes the data, science and projections are wrong, and that a weather event somehow turns the tide of the spread. But he still expects hospitals to overflow, and stood by his prediction that tens of thousands of ventilators are needed.

Cuomo has said the height of the infections could strike the state in two or three weeks, when as many as 140,000 hospital beds may be needed. He said that hospitalizations are doubling ever four days, which is slower than the rate seen last week, when they had doubled every three days.

But he cautioned that many people may have the illness but have not been tested, and that at least 80 percent of those who are infected do not require hospitalization and recover at home.

"What we’re looking for is not a reduction in the number of cases … (but) in the rate of the increase in the number of cases," the governor said. "The rate of increase should reduce, as opposed to the number of cases."

The governor said New York City's hospitals are reporting they have adequate supplies of personal protective equipment for staff, but he remains concerned there will be a shortage of ventilators, which have been crucial for people placed in intensive care units — especially elderly and immune-compromised patients.

New York is examining additional sites across New York City to build makeshift hospitals. Certain hospitals are using a method to "split" ventilators so they can be used by two patients.

The state's second-largest labor union, the Public Employees Federation (PEF), on Friday afternoon said it had secured a block of hotel rooms near Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island for its members who work at that facility and may fear spreading the coronavirus to their families — or are too exhausted to return home after their shifts.

“Our number-one priority is the safety of members and their families as they fight the coronavirus from the front line every day, many without the proper personal protective equipment” said PEF President Wayne Spence.