NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned early this week that the city could face "a full shutdown" in the coming weeks, as the COVID-19 surge may threaten the hospital system.

"There's a potential of having to do a full pause -- a full shutdown in the coming weeks, because we can't let this kind of momentum go," de Blasio told CNN.

"Now we're seeing the kind of level of infection that we haven't seen since May, and we have got to stop that momentum or else our hospital system will be threatened," the mayor added.

As of Tuesday afternoon, coronavirus deaths added up to 24,561 and confirmed cases to 362,227 in NYC, according to The City, a project that tracks the spread of confirmed COVID-19 infections and fatalities in New York City.