New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gives his a press briefing about the coronavirus crisis on April 17, 2020 in Albany, New York.
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New York state continues to see a decline in the number of hospitalizations from the coronavirus and deaths from infections, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.
But in noting the need to significantly expand testing for Covid-19 in the state, Cuomo called on the federal government to help New York labs acquire chemical reagents needed to perform those tests.
Speaking at a press conference in Albany, Cuomo said that at least 540 people died Friday in New York from the coronavirus, 90 fewer deaths that the previous day. The total number of fatalities statewide to date stands at 13,362.
Friday was the lowest daily increase in officially reported Covid-19 fatalities in more than a week.
Pointing to the number of current hospitalizations, which had dropped in recent days to below 17,000, and the number of patients requiring ventilators to…