New York City saw more deaths from the coronavirus in one day this week – Wednesday, 25 March – than US fatalities in Afghanistan over the past four years.

The biggest city in the United States, which has become the national epicentre of Covid-19, recorded 81 deaths; by contrast, since the start of 2016, some 75 US personnel have been killed in America's longest war.

In one hospital in the borough of Queens, 13 people admitted with symptoms of Covid-19 died on 25 March alone. One doctor at the hospital told the New York Times the situation there is “apocalyptic”.

Remarking on the sheer scale of New York’s daily death toll, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough wrote: “More Americans died today in New York City of the Coronavirus than died in Afghanistan over the past 5 years. The President needs to get serious about this pandemic now. It is only going to get worse.”

As New York City’s battle with the coronavirus epidemic continues to escalate, both mayor Bill de Blasio and state governor Andrew Cuomo are making frank predictions about just how bad they expect the situation to become.

Speaking at a press conference on the city’s deadliest day so far, Mr de Blasio said he expects that half or more of the city’s population – that is, four million people – will contract the coronavirus. He described that forecast as “worrisome, very deeply worrisome, for all of us”, but also said “we have to start with the truth”.

Mr Cuomo, meanwhile, has offered a rare piece of good news: it seems the city’s hospitalisation rate may be slowing. Projections now show that the rate will now double every 4.7 days, as opposed to every two days. The governor called it “a very good sign and a positive sign”, since it would mean that badly overstretched hospitals had more time to cope with the influx of new arrivals, but also acknowledged that the data seemed “almost too good to be true”.

Mr Cuomo has previously warned the rest of the US that the events unfolding in New York are just the start of what could be set to unfold nationally, saying his city is just “a test case”.

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“What is happening in New York is not a New York phenomenon,” he said at a press conference on 24 March. “Look at us today. Where we are today, you will be in three weeks, or four weeks, or five weeks, or six weeks.

“We are your future. And what we do here will chart the course for what we do in your city and in your community.”