The coronavirus killed city residents at a rate of more than one per hour on Friday.
Between just 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., 14 people in New York City died from the virus, pushing the Big Apple's total death toll to 43.
The toll had been 29 prior to Friday's jump in deaths.
It was the first time that the city's single-day toll had hit double digits.
And the city's Health Commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, warned New Yorkers that double-digit daily deaths may well become the new normal, at least for a time.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we get to a day when we have double-digits new people dying every day," she said at a City Hall press conference Friday afternoon.
During that eight-hour period Friday the city's positive cases also climbed from 5,151 to 5,683.
At 1,750 Brooklyn has the most COVID-19 cases followed by 1,514 in Queens, 1,402 in Manhattan, 736 in the Bronx, and 285 in Staten Island.
Authorities attribute at least part of the jump to increased testing capacity.
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