More than 1,00,000 Americans have tested positive for Covid-19 since the outbreak began. (Picture: AP)

The United States has topped 1 million positive coronavirus diagnoses as at least 56,286 have died from the virus.

America passed the million-mark for positive tests on Monday after the country announced over 13,281 new cases and 873 more deaths from the virus.

The country’s epicenter for the virus, New York, reported 337 new Covid-19 deaths on Monday and over 3,200 new cases of the virus, bringing the states total case count up to over 297,000 and the death toll above 22,600.

On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that a preliminary study suggested that nearly 15% of New Yorkers have had the virus after a survey tested 7,500 for Covid-19 antibodies. The infection rate appeared to be much higher in New York City which saw nearly 25% test positive for antibodies.




However, the state has seen glimpses of hope as cases have been declining over the past two weeks, as well as hospitalizations and ICU admissions. Cuomo has said that the state is now preparing to open, which it will in phases of at least two weeks to avoid a flare-up in cases.

District of Columbia Medical Reserve Corps volunteer Tim Mak , center, and Greg Adams, left, check a patient to be tested for COVID-19 at a COVID-19 testing site in United Medical Center’s parking lot in southeast Washington Friday, (Picture: AP)

A health worker conducts COVID-19 tests at a drive through coronavirus testing site at a community center Monday, April 27, 2020, in Sanford, Florida. (Picture: AP)

‘We have a couple of weeks, but start thinking through what it means to reopen…So turn that valve a little bit for a region, watch those four gauges very carefully every day…you can either close the valve, open the valve a little bit more or let the valve where it is.’

The governor also expressed the need for the country to confront the outbreak as a whole, and not with partisan politics.

‘This has been a hellish experience for our country. But it has also been a time of cooperation, unity and love. It’s not red state versus blue state. It’s us together versus this virus,’ Cuomo tweeted Monday.

New Jersey has recorded the second-most number of cases in the country with over 111,000 and 6,044 deaths. Over the last 24-hours, the state saw 2,150 new positive tests and 106 new deaths.

Other states hit hard by the virus have been Massachusetts, with 54,938 cases and 2,899 deaths; Illinois, with 43,903 and 1,933 deaths; and California, with 43,784 cases 1,721 deaths.