With the health system collapsed and in full swing with the federal government, the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced on Tuesday that the most affected state in the United States reached the “peak” of the pandemic, with more than 10,000 deaths and about 196,000 infected.

“We believe we have reached the peak,” said the governor in his daily press conference, adding that the current situation is like “a plateau” because “the volume (of patients and victims) remains high,” according to the agency DPA news.

With 1,600 cases and 778 deaths in the last 24 hours, the state already registers about 195,749 infected and 10,058 deaths in total.

Cuomo clarified that they will not yet relax social distancing measures or reopen the economy, an issue for which he and other governors have been confronting with President Donald Trump.

“We have seen countries that have gone through exactly this: they began to reopen and then they saw the infection rebound. Let’s learn from the mistakes of the past,” argued the governor, who, however, clarified that “this cannot be maintained for a long period of time”.

While Trump says that he is the only one with the authority to reopen the economy and order the return to public spaces, Cuomo and other governors of the northeast region of the country, joined forces to plan a joint and orderly exit, when the pandemic figures allow them.

Meanwhile, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city will begin making coronavirus test kits as part of a joint plan between companies, universities and the public sector to multiply the number of tests.

De Blasio reported that the city will manufacture 50,000 test kits per week and the devices are expected to be available from early May.

The mayor also announced an agreement with an Indiana state company that will purchase kits for another 50,000 tests per week, giving New York a guaranteed supply of at least 100,000 tests weekly.

In this sense, he stressed that the ability to carry out large-scale tests is the fundamental step to be able to go to a next stage in the fight against the pandemic and to be able to gradually recover economic activity.

In recent weeks, the New York administration has been highly critical of the federal government for its slowness to deliver or supply the necessary equipment for virus testing and other supplies such as masks and clothing for medical personnel.

The Democratic mayor also announced that several New York companies are manufacturing face shields to protect healthcare personnel and stressed that being “self-sufficient” in hospital supplies is “key” for New York.

Regarding data on hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and positive test percentage, De Blasio said there were some setbacks from the previous day.

These confirmed data, offered 48 hours late, showed that the number of hospitalizations continued to decrease on April 12, but the number of intensive care admissions and the percentage of positive tests increased slightly.

“This is a reminder that this is not going to happen overnight,” said De Blasio, who stressed the need to continue with the measures of confinement and social distancing.

The United States, with nearly 600,000 confirmed cases and more than 23,000 deaths, is the global epicenter of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University records.