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The toll of the coronavirus pandemic continued to grow Friday as New York reported that nearly another 800 people died across the state in just 24 hours — but the strict lockdown orders continued to slow the flood of new cases into hospitals, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.

Cuomo reported that 777 people died from the virus since Thursday, bringing the number of fatalities in the Empire State to a horrifying total of 7,844.

“These lives lost are people who came in at that height hospitalization period and we’re losing them,” Cuomo said during his daily press briefing in Albany.

Cuomo again likened the pandemic to the lives lost during the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“I believe 9/11 was the worst situation that I was going to deal with in my lifetime,” Cuomo said. “So in terms of lives lost this situation should exceed 9/11 is still beyond my capacity to fully appreciate, to tell you the truth.”

New statistics from hospitals across the state signaled that the spread of the vicious virus has slowed — but Cuomo warned that New York’s hard-won progress would be lost if people relax and stop following the shutdown orders.

The governor noted that hospitalizations remain down statewide and that for the first time since the virus outbreak, the number of patients in intensive care units across the state continues to drop.

“We are cautiously optimistic that we are slowing the infection rate,” Cuomo said. “That’s what the numbers say, that’s what the data suggest.”