New York's coronavirus death toll nearly three times higher than 9/11

Coronavirus deaths in New York jumped by 777 in one day, as the number of people hospitalized stayed relatively flat.

The mix of encouraging and grim news from Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday has become familiar this week as people hospitalized in previous weeks die. More than 3,000 deaths have been recorded since Monday to bring the statewide count to 7,844.

"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."

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 number of hospitalizations increased by 290, compared to daily increases of more than 1,000 last week. The number of intensive care patients was actually down slightly for the first time since mid-March.

There were 18,569 people hospitalized.

Cuomo said that if the hospitalization rate stays flat, New York might not need the overflow field hospitals they have been scrambling to construct recently.

New York state has about 160,000 confirmed cases, a number that only counts infected people who have been tested.