The United States now has nearly 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and there have been 1,475 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

The largest cluster of cases in the United States is in New York City, the university said, with 25,573 cases and 366 deaths.

On Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that he expects the epidemic won’t peak in his state for another three weeks.

The worst-hit countries in terms of numbers of cases after the United States are Italy, China and Spain, according to Johns Hopkinhe

Earlier on Friday, President Donald Trump is ready to supply a large number of ventilators needed by its friends and allies in their fight against the global pandemic.

Trump said when he spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the first thing that the PM asked him for help was ventilators.

The White House has been working with 10 different companies to manufacture ventilators. The federal government currently has 10,000 ventilators in stockpile and is ready to use them rationally across the country.

Meanwhile a Congressional delegation from the Washington State called the Trump administration to expedite the request for 1,000 additional ventilators from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).

On Tuesday, Trump announced that he wanted to loosen the coronavirus lockdown in the country and restart the economy within three weeks, calling social distancing measures too disruptive.

Health experts have advised the measures as the foundation for preventing the easily transmitted, potentially fatal illness from multiplying uncontrollably.

The plunge in activity and warnings of recession or even depression are a brutal reversal for what was until a few weeks ago a humming economy, with record low unemployment.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting price gouging and hoarding of medical supplies deemed critical amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Earlier, the US president had advised people not to gather in groups of more than 10, one day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended no gatherings with 50 people or more for the next eight weeks.