New York City to manufacture thousands of virus test kits

New York will start making tens of thousands of coronavirus test kits a week, its mayor announced Tuesday, as the city looks to boost testing capacity with a view to ending its shutdown.

Bill de Blasio said manufacturers in the Big Apple would start producing 50,000 tests per week beginning next month because they are not receiving enough kits from federal agencies.

The city will also start buying another 50,000 kits from a company in Indiana beginning Monday, he added, meaning New York will soon have 100,000 new tests a week.

"For the first time, we're going to have a truly reliable major supply of testing," de Blasio told reporters.

Increased testing is seen as essential to New York being able to reopen its shuttered economy following a weeks-long lockdown.

It will help isolate the virus, with infection rates expected to rise as businesses and schools gradually reopen.

More than 7,300 people have already died in New York City, according to Johns Hopkins University, out of more than 10,000 deaths statewide.