Mayor Bill de Blasio says he will release 300 criminals from Rikers Island to stop them from contracting coronavirus.

The criminals will be those who have committed misdemeanors or non-violent felonies and who have less than a year on their sentence.

De Blasio made the announcement on Tuesday as he gave an update on the coronavirus outbreak in New York City.

In the city, 131 people have died and there are nearly 15,000 cases of it.

De Blasio's decision to release the criminals is likely to draw criticism from his political enemies and the NYPD, many of whom say he is too lenient on criminals.

Three hundred inmates from Rikers Island will be released to stop them from contracting coronavirus

He said he had looked at various cases decided not to allow certain criminals with records of sexual assault of physical violence out of of jail, but that the others will be freed immediately.

'The reality is of the over 5,000 people in the corrections system, different inmates are in different statuses.

'The group that I have direct ability to act on are those who are serving a city sentence - they've gone to trial been found guilty and the sentence is under one year that they would serve on Rikers.

'Convicted of offenses such as misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. When we looked at that category - there's over 500 in that category.

'There's a substantial group because of very specific legal issues, I'm not able to immediately release.

'There are some who have domestic violence charges or sexual violence charges who I have determined we are not prepared to release at this point.

'The remainder have less than a year left on their sentence, some have many months, some have only a few months, some have only weeks - I'm going to treat this across the board - approximately 300 inmates will be released,' he said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio , pictured at a warehouse with one of the new ventilators the government has sent to help the state of NY battle coronavirus, said he had weighed up the humanitarian need to get as many inmates out as possible with the public safety concerns that come with freeing them

De Blasio said he was trying to strike a 'humanitarian balance between trying to get everyone we need that we can physically out of her jail system out and be mindful that there are real public safety concerns here.'

'We're pained by both sides of the equation. That is a situation where I know broadly what I'd like to see happen... I also know there's a lot of extenuating circumstances,' he said.

Other cities and states are taking similar steps.

New Jersey's Gov. Phil Murphy said he too was going to release 'low risk' inmates by Thursday.

Murphy tweeted on Monday that 'certain low-level offenders will be released from county jails to prevent the spread of #COVID19 within our corrections system'.

Sharing the decision from attorney general Gurbir Singh Grewal, Murphy said: 'This is a prudent measure, and all efforts have been made to ensure public safety.' n Los Angeles county, at least 1,700 inmates have already been released.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva said none of the released inmates were considered a threat to the public. He added that about 30 per cent of the 15,000 inmates in the county were considered homeless.

At least one inmate and five corrections employees have tested positive for coronavirus across California's jails.

Late Sunday night Stuart Rabner, chief justice of the state's supreme court, signed to suspend or commute sentences being served by inmates as a condition of probation or a municipal court conviction.

In his filing Rabner wrote about the 'profound risk posed to people in correctional facilities arising from the spread of COVID-19'.