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

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.

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.