An employee at a New York City hospital where nurses are forced to wear garbage bags as gowns has died of coronavirus.

Kious Kelly, 48, died at Mount Sinai West hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday night, a week after he was admitted upon testing positive for coronavirus, according to the New York Post.

Kelly was an assistant nursing manager at Mount Sinai West, which like other hospitals in New York and elsewhere has been hit by an urgent shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and isolation gowns.

A shocking photo posted to Facebook shows three nurses at Mount Sinai West wearing black garbage bags as makeshift protective gowns.

Assistant nursing manager Kious Kelly, 48, died at Mount Sinai West hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday night, a week after he was admitted upon testing positive for coronavirus

A shocking photo posted to Facebook shows three nurses at Mount Sinai West wearing black garbage bags as makeshift protective gowns

'NO MORE GOWNS IN THE WHOLE HOSPITAL,' the caption on the photo reads.

'NO MORE MASKS AND REUSING THE DISPOSABLE ONES…NURSES FIGURING IT OUT DURING COVID-19 CRISIS.'

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Mount Sinai Health System wrote: 'We are deeply saddened by the passing of a beloved member of our nursing staff.'

'The safety of our staff and patients has never been of greater importance and we are taking every precaution possible to protect everyone,' the statement continued.

'But this growing crisis is not abating and has already devastated hundreds of families in New York and turned our frontline professionals into true American heroes. Today, we lost another hero - a compassionate colleague, friend and selfless caregiver.'

At least four staffers who worked with Kelly have also tested positive for the coronavirus, and there are nine coronavirus patients being treated in the telemetry monitoring unit where he worked, according to the Post.

'Today, we lost another hero - a compassionate colleague, friend and selfless caregiver,' Mount Sinai said in a statement when asked about Kelly's death

Mount Sinai West has about 40 coronavirus patients scattered throughout the building, sources said.

New York, now the U.S. epicenter of the outbreak, has at least 30,811 confirmed cases, nearly 18,000 in New York City alone. The statewide death toll is nearing 300.

Kelly's nursing school classmate Annie K. Lee expressed her sorrow at his death in a moving Facebook post.

'I still remember hugging Kious on graduation day. I am at a loss for words and cannot even begin to describe how sorry I am, that the world has lost a flame as bright as you, in this unforgiving Coronavirus worldwide pandemic,' she wrote.

Lee issued an urgent plea to the public to support healthcare workers, writing: 'GIVE your unnecessarily stocked masks, N95s, N99s, gloves, isolation gowns, and Medical Protective Gear to your local hospitals.'

On Wednesday, officials in New York City were taking grim steps to prepare for a potential public health disaster, new cases continued to emerge at an alarming rate and hospitalizations spiked.

A makeshift morgue was set up outside Bellevue Hospital, and the city's police, their ranks dwindling as more fall ill, were told to patrol nearly empty streets to enforce social distancing.

Armed military personnel and NYC Medical Examiner's Office set up white tents and refrigeration trucks for a makeshift morgue outside Bellevue hospital Wednesday

National Guards are seen inside the Jacob Javits Center on Monday in New York City. The massive convention center is being converted into a field hospital

Public health officials hunted down beds and medical equipment and put out a call for more doctors and nurses for fear the number of sick will explode in a matter of weeks, overwhelming hospitals as has happened in Italy and Spain.

New York University offered to let its medical students graduate early so that they could join the battle.

Mayor Bill de Blasio predicted on Wednesday that half of all New Yorkers will eventually contract coronavirus.

New York City has a population of about 8.6 million. If the current statewide mortality rate held true, deaths could exceed 40,000 in the city alone if half of all residents contracted coronavirus.

De Blasio said: 'It's a fair bet to say that half of all New Yorkers and maybe more than half will end up contracting this disease.'

People make their way inside nearly empty Grand Central Terminal, Wednesday in Manhattan

Health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, added: 'We think 50 percent by the end of this epidemic, this pandemic, so by the time September rolls around likely 50 percent, but it could also be much higher.'

De Blasio also told New Yorkers not 'cling to the false hope' of reopening by Easter after President Donald Trump suggested that date for lifting lockdowns.

And he slammed Mitch McConnell for 'standing in the way' of the funding 'we need' as the $2 trillion economic rescue package continued to hit snags in Washington.

Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo, again pleading for help in dealing with the onslaught, attributed the cluster to the city's role as a gateway to international travelers and the sheer density of its population.

'Our closeness makes us vulnerable,' he said. 'But it's true that your greatest weakness is also your greatest strength. And our closeness is what makes us who we are. That is what New York is.'