Cuomo, whose state is the epicenter of the US COVID-19 pandemic, said he will sign an executive order to permit independent pharmacists to conduct diagnostic testing. The move will tap into a network of more than 5,000 pharmacies in New York.

New York currently conducts an average of 20,000 tests per day and has about 6,000 new confirmed cases daily. New York is the hardest-hit state in the US, having more than 282,000 infection  cases and 22,000 deaths so far.