US: New York's virus death toll nearly three times 9/11

The novel coronavirus has wrought a death toll in the U.S. state of New York nearly three times higher than the number of people who were killed during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to data released Friday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"To put this in perspective, I lived through 9/11, as many New Yorkers did who are of somewhat advanced age. And I believed 9/11 was the worst situation that I was going to deal with in my lifetime," Cuomo said during his daily news briefing. "In terms of lives lost, that this situation should exceed 9/11 is still beyond my capacity to fully appreciate, to tell you the truth."

In all, the New York state has lost 7,844 people due to COVID-19 complications.

The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, masterminded by killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, led to the deaths of 2,753 people when the terror group hijacked two airliners and slammed them into New York's World Trade Center, destroying the towering buildings and sending plumes of debris shooting through the U.S.'s most populous city.

New York has been the state hardest-hit by the novel coronavirus, and it continues to see high daily death tolls.

The number of people who died there Thursday is lower than the high of 799 set April 8, but not by much. In all, 722 people died on Thursday, Cuomo said.

“The bad news is, we continue to lose a tremendous number of lives and endure great pain as a state,” he said, but noted a "dramatic decline" in the daily rate of hospitalizations when the past three days are averaged.

"We are cautiously optimistic that we are slowing the infections rate," he added.

The U.S. is the country with the highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections with a tally from Johns Hopkins University indicating 467,184 have tested positive and 16,736 have died. In all, 26,522 individuals have recovered, according to the study.