This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Friday, March 27th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here. Our guide to understanding New York on PAUSE, NY's stay-at-home order; is here; preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222. You can send us tips/questions/comments at tips@gothamist.com.

6:15 p.m. Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered the release of roughly 1,100 incarcerated parole violators, as the novel coronavirus continues to spread rapidly through New York's jails and prisons.

Through Friday morning, a total of 103 detainees currently in custody on Rikers Island and 80 jail staff have tested positive for the virus — an infection rate that's more than seven times higher than the rest of New York City.

The governor's order will pertain to an estimated 400 low-level technical parole violators in city jails, according to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. The department is currently identifying incarcerated parolees who have access to adequate housing and whose release does not pose an undue public safety risk, the agency said.

There are approximately 600 people held on Rikers for technical parole violations, such as staying out past curfew, smoking marijuana, or breaking informal rules invented by parole officers. The jail's total population dipped slightly below 5,000 this week, the lowest it has been since 1949, according to the mayor.

In addition to the state order on technical parole violators, Mayor de Blasio said on Friday that 375 detainees had been released through Thursday night, with an additional 75 more to be freed on Friday evening. A Bronx Supreme Court Justice ordered the city to release an additional 106 detainees from Rikers Island. Those detainees are expected to walk free on Friday evening.

Both the mayor and the governor have been criticized for not moving faster to stem the spread of the virus among incarcerated individuals.

Corey Stoughton, the head of special litigation at the Legal Aid Society, said the focus on technical parolees was "low-hanging fruit."

"If there's anything we've learned about the infection rate and failure to contain it on Rikers, it's that we need to be bolder," Stoughton told Gothamist. "We need our leaders to start recognizing that public safety also includes safety from the risk of infection by COVID-19."

De Blasio Says April 5th Is 'Decisive Moment'

6:00 p.m. Mayor de Blasio continued to implore the federal government to mobilize the military and send more quantities of urgently needed supplies, specifically, ventilators.

He identified next Sunday, April 5th as a "decisive moment" for the city's hospitals, saying that the current stockpile of supplies would not be enough to last beyond that date. "After next Sunday, April 5th is when I get very, very worried about everything we're going to need," he said. "The people power we're going to need, the equipment, the supplies, obviously the ventilators."

While New York City has received millions of surgical face masks, hundreds of thousands of N95 masks and tens of thousands of gowns and face shields, city officials say they are still far short of the 15,000 ventilators that have been requested.

De Blasio dispelled the notion offered by President Trump that the crisis would be over by Easter.

New York City now has 25,573 confirmed cases of coronavirus. At least 366 people have died across the five boroughs.

De Blasio said he spoke with President Trump about the situation at Elmhurst hospital in Queens.

The roughly 545-bed public hospital has been one of the worst hit by coronavirus patients, with reports of insufficient supplies and ventilators.

On Friday, city officials sent 64 additional clinicians to Elmhurst hospital and will send 105 nurses on Saturday.

According to de Blasio, the hospital received 40 ventilators on Thursday.

The mayor said he specifically asked Trump, who is from Queens, to "keep Elmhurst hospital in mind."

"Today it’s Elmhurst hospital in Queens, tomorrow it will be other hospitals," he said.

NYC Releases Confirmed Cases By Neighborhood

4:30 p.m. For the first time, New York City has released the positive tests on coronavirus by neighborhood.

A map released on the city's website for coronavirus data shows the Highbridge section of the Bronx along with several neighborhoods in Brooklyn, including Borough Park, Flatbush, Bed-Stuy, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint, and large swaths of Queens, like Far Rockaway, as having a majority of patients test positive.

The map relies on test data for 51,404 people in New York City.

Members of the press have been asking the administration in recent days if it could release a more detailed geographic breakdown of which areas in the city have produced the most positive tests. The city currently provides a breakdown by borough.

The map, however, does not show how many people in each of these neighborhoods have been tested. Some neighborhoods which are showing relatively fewer positive tests could simply have performed less testing.

"Testing patterns have been inconsistent," Mayor de Blasio said during a press conference on Friday.

But that should change over time as the city tries to ramp up testing across the five boroughs. As of Thursday, nearly 7,000 people were tested in one day.

New York State Has Highest Death Toll In A Single Day

1:00 p.m. New York state on Friday recorded an additional 134 coronavirus deaths, the largest number to date in a 24-hour-period.

As of Friday, 519 people have died statewide. New York state now has 44,635 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 7,377 overnight.

Speaking from the Javits Center in Manhattan, Governor Cuomo said the news was not unexpected. There are now some coronavirus patients in New York who have spent a month on ventilators.

"The longer you are on a ventilator, the less likely you are going to come off that ventilator," Cuomo said.

Of the total people who have tested positive, 1,583 are in intensive care units, which are hospital beds equipped with ventilators.

The state is aiming to raise the total hospital bed capacity from 53,000 to 140,000. During his press conference at the Javits Center on Friday, Cuomo thanked the team comprised of FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Guard that have been retrofitting the convention center into four field hospitals with 1,000 beds. The beds will be used to free up space at existing New York City hospitals.

Another 600-bed facility in Brooklyn is expected to be completed next week.

In addition, a 1,000-bed hospital ship called the USNS Comfort, which had been delayed due to maintenance, is now expected to arrive in New York harbor on Monday.

Schools Will Be Closed For At Least Another Two Weeks

In an expected decision, Cuomo said that schools in the state would not be ready to reopen on April 1st and extended the closure for an additional two weeks. He said he would reassess the situation at that time. In the meantime, he will once again waive the requirement that schools must be open for 180 days to receive state funding.

Mayor de Blasio early on prepared families for the possibility the New York City schools could remain closed for the rest of the academic year, but in recent days he has cited April 20 as the scheduled reopening date. But on Friday, he told Brian Lehrer that reopening schools at that time would be a challenge.

Mayor Says Elon Musk Will Donate Ventilators To NYC And State

11:30 a.m. Mayor de Blasio tweeted on Friday that Tesla founder Elon Musk will donate hundreds of ventilators to New York State, including to New York City's public hospitals. He said he spoke with Musk on Thursday night.

On Wednesday, Musk tweeted that the Tesla factory in Buffalo, New York would reopen to produce ventilators. "We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York," he wrote.

Musk is currently in discussions with Ireland-based company Medtronic, which is partnering with his company to fast-track production of ventilators at a California plant.

Other automakers, including GM, Ford and FCA, have also pledged to either donate supplies or offer resources to make more ventilators. GM announced last Friday that it was working with Ventec Life Systems to help them manufacture ventilators.

De Blasio Says Half Of New Yorkers Will Become Infected With COVID-19

In a sign of the worsening toll of the coronavirus crisis, for the second day in a row, more than 80 people in New York City have died from the disease within a 24-hour period.

As of Thursday evening, there were at least 365 deaths in the city, an increase of 85 over the previous day. There were 23,112 confirmed coronavirus cases citywide.

Speaking on ABC this morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio echoed a grim projection that city health officials have made about the scale of the spread.

"Half the people in the city will ultimately be infected," he said.

Among those who died Thursday was Dennis Dickson, a 62-year-old member of the New York City Police Department.

Dickson worked as a civilian cleaner at 1 Police Plaza, died Thursday.

In a video message posted on Twitter, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea acknowledged his death and contributions to the city. “When Hurricane Sandy struck, he worked 17 days straight, and since the coronavirus has struck the city, he has been keeping the NYPD safe," he said. "Today he passed away from complications of the coronavirus. We have lost a member of the NYPD family and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”

On Thursday night, a high ranking city official confirmed that NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller was hospitalized with coronavirus. According to a report on NBC New York, Miller is "alert and in good spirits."

To date, 351 members of the NYPD have contracted COVID-19.

The mayor has been making daily pleas for federal assistance. Hospital supplies and equipment will run out after the next week, he said.

Two MTA Workers, A Subway Conductor And A Bus Driver, Die From COVID-19

The transit union representing 41,000 mass transit workers announced the first member deaths from the novel coronavirus. 

Peter Petrassi, a subway conductor who worked for the MTA for 20 years, died on Thursday. He was reportedly first hospitalized last Friday.

Later on Thursday, TWU Local 100 revealed that bus operator Oliver Cyrus, who worked out of the Manhattanville Depot, also died. 

In a series of Tweets, the union said, "The MTA must NOW provide masks to frontline transit workers. Otherwise, the moment is rapidly approaching where bus and subway workers will do what is necessar  to protect themselves and their families. Dedication and duty does not mean using transit workers as cannon fodder." 

The MTA reports 52 workers have tested positive. The agency wouldn’t release the exact number of workers quarantined, but one day this week there were more than 800 train delays because of the lack of workers.

-Stephen Nessen and Jen Chung

U.S. Now Has Highest Number Of Cases In World, U.K Prime Minister Tests Positive

The U.S. on Thursday became the country with the most coronavirus cases in the world, outstripping Italy and even China. As of Friday morning, there were at least 86,000 people who tested positive. More than 1,300 have now died.

Around the world, the list of prominent people who have tested positive is growing. On Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Minister announced that he has tested positive, becoming the first leader of a major Western country known to have the disease.

Earlier this month, Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, became the first leader of a major industrialized country to go into isolation after his wife tested positive.

He was followed by Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, who went into isolation on Sunday after learning that her doctor had tested positive for the virus. A spokesman for Merkel later said that an initial test to see if she had the coronavirus was negative.

Here in the U.S., Senator Rand Paul revealed over the weekend that he had tested positive. The Republican from Kentucky is the first known U.S. Senator to contract the disease.