New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took a coronavirus test during his televised briefing, in a bid to encourage more people to take the tests.
"I’m not in pain, I’m not in discomfort," he said after a doctor, dressed in PPE, conducted the test. "Closing my eyes was a moment of relaxation. There is no reason why you should not get the test."
Cuomo urged New Yorkers to get tested if they had symptoms or were exposed to the virus.
He added that the screenings had been expanded to include those people who've returned to work, medical and nursing-home personnel.
"We just don't have enough New Yorkers coming to be tested," Cuomo said, urging more people to get screened as parts of the state reopen some non-essential activities.
So far, New York has registered more than 350,000 cases and over 22,000 deaths.
Russian drones and missiles bore down on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early on Thursday, with officials reporting two deaths, 13 injured and fires in apartment and non-residential buildings as Washington resumed weapons delivery to the war-torn country.
The US said on Wednesday it was imposing sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, who has been outspoken about Israel's war on Gaza.
All 31 workers escaped without injuries from a collapsed industrial tunnel in Los Angeles' Wilmington area, after scrambling over a tall pile of loose underground soil, city officials said late on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump met for a second time in two days with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss Gaza as Trump's Middle East envoy said Israel and Hamas were closing their differences on a ceasefire deal.
The death toll from the July 4th flash flood that ravaged a swath of central Texas Hill Country rose on Tuesday to at least 109, many of them children, as search teams pressed on through mounds of mud-encrusted debris looking for scores of people still missing.