New York City’s death toll from coronavirus has officially eclipsed the number of those killed at the World Trade Centre on September 11, health officials said.

At least 3,202 people have died in New York from Covid-19, according to the count released by the city.

The deadliest terror attack on US soil killed 2,753 people in the city and 2,977 overall, when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on September 11 2001.

New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500, governor Andrew Cuomo said.

But in an encouraging sign, he reported that the average number of people newly admitted to hospital each day dropped over the past three days.

Across the US, the death toll reached about 11,000, with around 370,000 confirmed infections.

A person wearing a protective face mask walks in New York
A person wearing a protective face mask walks in New York (Matt Rourke/AP)

Mr Cuomo said during a coronavirus briefing last month that “9/11 transformed society … You had a sense of vulnerability that you never had before, which I feel to this day”.

He added: “There was a trauma to 9/11. But as a society, as a country, we have been blessed in that we have not gone through something as disruptive as this.”

The coronavirus death toll has mounted over the course of just a few weeks.

The city recorded its first on March 13, less than two weeks after confirming its first infection.

Elsewhere in New York, a crew member of a navy hospital ship sent to the city for the coronavirus outbreak has tested positive for the disease.

Passengers use the New York City subway system
Passengers use the New York City subway system (John Minchillo/AP)

The USNS Comfort crew member tested positive on Monday and was being isolated, the navy said.

The positive test will not affect the 1,000-bed hospital ship’s mission to receive patients, according to the navy.

The Comfort has treated about 40 non-Covid-19 patients since arriving in the city last week, prompting complaints it was doing little to help overburdened hospitals in the area.

President Donald Trump said on Monday he agreed to take Covid-19 patients aboard the ship after speaking to Mr Cuomo.

Federal officials say emergency patients will now be seen on the ship, whether or not they have the virus, though the ship can only isolate a small number of patients.