New York state will ramp up its testing for the novel coronavirus, particularly in African American and Latino communities, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).

There have been more than 1.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide. The virus has killed more than 97,000.

In the United States, 476,397 cases have been reported, including 17,843 deaths, according to the most recent figures.

The area in and around New York has been the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, where most of the cases have been.

“Also let’s learn the lessons of what we’re going through now, because we haven’t finished going through it. Let’s learn how and why this virus kills, especially why we have higher fatality rates among African-Americans and Latinos, and what we do about it. Let’s understand it, but let’s also address it,” Cuomo said. “We’re going to be doing more testing in African-American and Latino communities with more data.

“We’re going to open new testing sites, primarily in African-American and Latino communities with SUNY Albany, the Department of Health, Northwell, collect the test results but also collect the information we need to come up with policies to fix this,” he added. “Where do people live, where do people work, what is their socioeconomic status? Where do they socialize? What are their previous health conditions? Why do we have these higher rates and what do we do about it? And let’s do that now.”

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