New York, Oct 25 (IANS): The Covid-19 test positivity rates trended slightly higher in New York state, with the rate in the "micro-cluster" focus areas, where the pandemic has been the most severe, reaching 2.58 per cent, compared with 2.31 per cent a day earlier, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The statewide positivity rate excluding the "micro-cluster" areas was 1.13 per cent, up from 0.98 per cent on Thursday, Xinhua news agency quoted Cuomo as saying on Saturday.

Of the 156,940 tests reported on Friday, 2,061 were positive, or 1.31 per cent of the total, over the 1.15 per cent one day earlier, he added.

As of Saturday, the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University reported 33,418 coronavirus deaths in New York for the past seven months, the worst among all the states of the country.

However, it had the third lowest positivity rate of Covid-19 test among all US states, according to the seven-day rolling average updated on October 19 by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Once the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, New York state has reported more than 499,000 Covid-19 cases, of which New York City accounted for over 263,000.

As of Sunday, the US continued as the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 8,571,943 and 224,771, respectively, according to the Johns Hopkins University.