New York state declares emergency due to COVID-19

By Betul Yuruk

NEW YORK (AA) - The governor of New York on Saturday declared a state of emergency after the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus rose to 76.

Andrew Cuomo announced the decision after the number of detected cases in the state doubled in the last 24 hours.

While the number of cases in New York has increased to 76, COVID-19 has been detected in a total of 377 people in the country so far.

The death toll of the disease increased to 17 after two more people died in Florida, with a new strain of the coronavirus detected in 21 people on a cruise ship held off California.

First detected in Wuhan, China in December, the coronavirus is now present in over 80 countries worldwide.

The global death toll is nearing 3,500, with around 100,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

It has since spread to over 80 countries and the WHO, which declared the outbreak an international health emergency, recently updated its global risk assessment to "very high."