About 100 children in N.Y. are suspected of having a rare illness tied to the virus.

New York State health officials are investigating about 100 cases of a rare and dangerous inflammatory syndrome that afflicts children and appears to be connected to the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Tuesday.

More than half of the states pediatric inflammatory syndrome cases 57 percent involved children ages 5 to 14.

Earlier the day, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that 52 cases of the syndrome had been reported in New York City, with 10 potential cases also being evaluated.

The dead included a 5-year-old boy, who died last week in New York City; a 7-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl, Mr. Cuomo said.

This is a truly disturbing situation, Mr. Cuomo said at his daily news briefing. And I know parents around the state and around the country are very concerned about this, and they should be.

The governors announcement came as he reported 195 more virus-related deaths in the state, an increase from Mondays total but the second consecutive day that the toll was under 200.

The pediatric illness began to appear in the region in recent weeks, and doctors and researchers are still investigating how and why it affects children.

Connecticut reported its first cases of the syndrome on Monday. As of Tuesday, six children in the state were being treated for the ailment, officials said.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced three of the Connecticut cases at a briefing on Monday.

I think right now its a very, very tiny risk of infection, he said. It was not really ever detected in Asia, which, I dont quite know what that implies.

Three other children were being treated for the syndrome at the Connecticut Childrens Medical Center in Hartford, a spokeswoman, Monica Buchanan, said on Tuesday. Two of the three were confirmed to have the illness, Ms. Buchanan said.

As of Monday, health officials in New Jersey said they were investigating eight potential cases of the syndrome.

With New York making steady progress in its battle against the virus and three upstate regions poised to start a gradual reopening by this weekend, Mr. Cuomo on Tuesday reiterated the importance of federal aid as the state charts its recovery.

The number of people hospitalized in New York continued to decrease, Mr. Cuomo said, one of the key metrics that officials are monitoring in assessing whether the outbreaks severity is waning.

The number of new daily hospitalizations has fallen close to where it was on March 19, just before Mr. Cuomo issued executive orders shutting down much of the state.

Were making real progress, theres no doubt, Mr. Cuomo said. But theres also no doubt that its no time to get cocky, no time to get arrogant.

While sounding that warning, Mr. Cuomo urged lawmakers in Washington to give state and local governments whose budgets have been ravaged by the pandemic the financial help they need to rebound.

To get this economy up and running, were going to need an intelligent stimulus bill, Mr. Cuomo said.

New York state needs an estimated $61 billion in federal support to avoid enacting 20 percent cuts to schools, local governments and hospitals, Mr. Cuomo said.

He also said it would be impossible for New York to resume business as normal without the money it needs to develop a sophisticated testing and contact tracing apparatus.

It is unclear whether Congress will give Mr. Cuomo the help he is seeking. Like President Trump, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, said he last month that he did not support what he has labeled a blue state bailout.

Mr. Cuomo called Mr. McConnells characterization one of the really dumb ideas of all time.

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey began outlining plans on Tuesday for the testing and contact tracing that he said would be critical to reopening the states battered economy.

Still, Mr. Murphy made the case that New Jersey which, along with New York, has been an epicenter of the pandemic is currently the state most affected by the coronavirus outbreak. New Jersey, he said, had overtaken New York and Connecticut in the rate of new infections and deaths.

There are still thousands in our hospitals, and sadly an untold number more will perish, the governor said, while noting that the number of hospitalizations, deaths and new cases had plunged since the states peak in mid-April.

To continue to beat back the outbreak, New Jersey officials said they planned to test up to 20,000 people a day by the end of the month. The state would also be sending out hundreds of contact tracers to determine who has had a close interaction with a sick person, Mr. Murphy said.

Mr. Murphy said the goal in New Jersey was to recruit a racially diverse group of contact tracers who can speak various languages and identify with the communities in which they will work. The pay is about $25 an hour, he said.

The drop in the number of new coronavirus cases means that the state can consider a limited reopening, Mr. Murphy said, but he warned impatient residents about the risks of loosening restrictions too soon. After closing parks and golf courses in early April, the state reopened them on May 2; the governor did not say which businesses other places may open next.

Also on Tuesday, Mr. Murphy announced 198 new deaths 139 more than were reported the day before for a total of 9,508. About half of those fatalities were of residents of nursing homes. The daily report of new deaths in New Jersey may include deaths that occurred weeks ago and were only recently confirmed.

Those numbers dont lie, Mr. Murphy said. We are still the most impacted state in America.

The puzzle of how to revive New York Citys tourist trade is so vexing that city officials are pulling together a group of industry experts and one of the biggest names on Broadway to try to solve it.

On Tuesday, the citys tourism agency, NYC & Company, said it was establishing the Coalition for NYC Hospitality & Tourism Recovery. Among the groups leaders: Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer, lyricist and actor who created the musical Hamilton.

The coalitions task is to come up with a plan for wooing people back to the city once it starts to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, a chapter that appears to be months off at least after the Broadway League said on Tuesday that its members were canceling shows through Sept 6.

It is time to consider how we can begin to reopen our doors and safely reconnect with our city and with each other, and with the visitors who will one day again flock to New York, said Charles Flateman, NYC & Companys chairman and executive vice president of the Shubert Organization.

Joining Mr. Flatemen and Mr. Miranda at the groups helm are Ellen Futter, the president of the American Museum of Natural History, which recently announced a number of layoffs; Thelma Golden, the Studio Museum in Harlems director and chief curator; the restaurateur Danny Meyer; and Peter Ward, the president of the New York Hotel & Motel Trades Council.

Before the pandemic struck, NYC & Company was forecasting an 11th straight year of increased tourism. In 2019, the city had more than 66 million visitors who generated about $70 billion of economic activity that supported 400,000 jobs, according to the agencys estimates.

Together, we will create a next act for our city, Mr. Miranda said in a statement.

Mr. de Blasio on Tuesday announced an expansion of coronavirus testing and tracing across New York City, but he warned again that a limited reopening of the city was weeks away at best.

Twelve new testing sites will be set up in the next three weeks in a push to double the public hospital systems testing capacity, the mayor said at his daily news briefing. The city was also training 535 contact tracers, with a goal of having 2,500 in the field by early June.

Still, the city, the pandemics U.S. epicenter, has met just four of the seven criteria required to start to reopen, Mr. Cuomo said on Monday while announcing that three upstate regions had achieved all of the necessary benchmarks.

Mr. de Blasio has said he is closely monitoring three measures in weighing the citys progress toward reopening: the number of new virus infections; the number of infected patients in intensive care units; and the percentage of residents testing positive for the virus.

Clearly, these indicators are not getting us the kind of answers we need to change our restrictions in May, the mayor said. Youve got to have 10 days to two weeks of consistent, downward motion. We havent had that in a sustained way at all.

As Connecticut continues to respond to a virus outbreak that has killed more than 3,000 people in the state, Gov. Ned Lamont said on Tuesday that he was replacing the public health commissioner, Renee Coleman-Mitchell.

Mr. Lamont did not provide a reason for the change, only saying that he had appointed the commissioner of the states Department of Social Services, Deidre Gifford, to act as Ms. Coleman-Mitchells replacement.

In a statement, Mr. Lamont said that Ms. Coleman-Mitchells service over the last year has been a great deal of help, particularly in the face of the global Covid-19 pandemic that has brought disruption to many throughout the world.

Ms. Coleman-Mitchell began her tenure in April 2019. Though she appeared at Mr. Lamonts daily news briefings in early April, she has been absent from them in recent weeks.

The coronavirus outbreak has brought much of life in New York to a halt and there is no clear end in sight. But there are also moments that offer a sliver of strength, hope, humor or some other type of relief: a joke from a stranger on line at the supermarket; a favor from a friend down the block; a great meal ordered from a restaurant we want to survive; trivia night via Zoom with the bar down the street.

Wed like to hear about your moments, the ones that are helping you through these dark times. A reporter or editor may contact you. Your information will not be published without your consent.

Reporting was contributed by Maria Cramer, Michael Gold, Patrick McGeehan, Jesse McKinley and Azi Paybarah.

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About 100 N.Y. Children Treated for Illness Tied to Virus: Live Updates - The New York Times