Coronavirus Pandemic LIVE Updates: Cases in India Rise to 19,984, Death Toll at 640; Govt May Suspend Border Trade With China Through Nathu La

Nearly 40,000 new cases were reported between Monday at 8:30pm local time, and Tuesday at the same time.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pressed President Donald Trump Tuesday for more help from the federal government to carry out coronavirus testing during a face-to face-meeting he described as cordial and productive after weeks of sometimes nasty exchanges.

As the virus death toll in the US keeps rising, widespread testing is viewed as key to states being able to lift stay-at-home orders and reopen their shuttered economies.

Cuomo said his state, the hardest hit in America by the pandemic, wants to double its daily testing rate quickly and pressed Trump for the federal government to take control of the supply chain for reagents and other medical equipment to carry out the tests.

The goal is to spare states from bidding against each other on the open market to acquire the material, as they have been doing, or looking abroad to purchase it.

Speaking after his first personal meeting with Trump since the health crisis began, Cuomo acknowledged that the testing itself is the responsibility of individual states.

"But we need help from the federal government to make the supply chain work for the manufacturers, on the reagents, test kits, et cetera, and we said that we'd like to work together in New York state to take our current rate of testing -- we do about 20,000 tests a day on average -- and double that. Go to 40,000."

"It's a very aggressive goal, and we said that we would work together to meet that goal, so it was a very good conversation," said Cuomo.

Cuomo also said he regretted that a new $480-billion relief package that was passed by the Senate Tuesday leaves out a key Democratic demand: extra funding for state and local governments battling the pandemic.