The number of coronavirus cases in New York state has risen to 20,000, amounting to five per cent of all worldwide cases of the disease.

Confirmed cases of Covid-19 increased by 5,700 to 20,875 across the US state on Monday.

New York is now an epicentre of the outbreak that has so far infected over 46,000 people in the US, where testing is being stepped up and the virus is spreading rapidly.

New York City remains the worst hit area, with 12,305 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Monday. An average of 16,000 tests for coronavirus are now being carried out every day.

“As of yesterday, about 25 per cent of all the testing nationwide is being produced right here”, said Andrew Cuomo on Monday.

As Governor Cuomo announced the latest statistics for the spread of Covid-19, he stressed the need to increase statewide hospital capacity.

“That trajectory is going up — the wave is still going up”, he said. “We have a lot of work to do to get that rate down and get the hospital capacity up.”

In New York, 157 people have died and 2,653 remain hospitalised – the latter representing 13 per cent of the state’s total.

According to Mr Cuomo, approximately one quarter of those coronavirus patients in hospital are currently receiving intensive care.

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New York health officials anticipate needing up to 113,000 hospital beds to cope with the spread of Covid-19. At present, there are 53,000 available. More than 15,000 more intensive care units are also estimated to be required.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio welcomed White House assistance on Monday night as 400 ventilators from the national stockpile arrived in the city.

He said: “Our need is in the thousands, but it’s a race against time and this will buy us critical days.”