New York City Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered residents of the state to wear facemasks while in public as a way of curbing further spread of COVID-19.

The governor made the announcement at a press briefing on Wednesday, where he also gave the latest COVID-19 update.

"I am issuing an Executive Order today that all people MUST wear a mask or face covering in public in situations where social distancing is not possible," Governor Cuomo said.

The 62-yar-old said 752 people died from COVID-19 in New York on Tuesday, calling the fatalities "a heartbreaking loss."

"We are not out of the woods yet. Coronavirus is still a monumental public health crisis and we are losing New Yorkers every day to this virus," he said.

The governor also noted that while there was talk of reopening the economy soon, care ought to be taken.

He said reopening the state was pegged on the ability to implement large-scale tests.

"The single best tool to begin to safely reopen society is large-scaling testing. The unvarnished truth is that we can't yet test to scale. And we can't get either diagnostic or antibody testing to scale without federal support," he said.