As many as 71 residents of a Jewish care home in New York City have died from coronavirus.

AP reported that Parker Jewish Institute in Queens had suffered the worst outbreak in New York State, and had 71 deaths.

The figures were released late on Monday and emerged after officials came under fire over whether the state was doing enough to protect those in nursing homes, where at least 4,813 people have died since March 1.

The numbers represent a steep jump from the 57 deaths that had been reported at Parker Jewish Institute in mid-April.

Residents at the eight-floor, 527-bed nursing home, include war veterans and Holocaust survivors.

Lina Scacco, a spokesperson for Parker Jewish Institute explained that the nursing home had a higher number of fatalities because it started Covid-19 testing early in March.

“It really speaks to who we are as an organisation, since we’ve been around for an extremely long time,” Ms Scacco told Patch.

“We have a frailer and more complicated and more complex population. They are very vulnerable to any type of viral illness that could be fatal to them because of their co-morbidities.”

Despite this, American media had previously alleged that the home was ill-equipped to deal with the virus outbreak as staff were lacking requisite protective equipment and had been forced to wear bin bags as gowns.