Over the course of nearly five weeks, the coronavirus has killed more New Yorkers than the terrorists who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. And the death toll is only expected to grow — by leaps and bounds.

The terrorists killed about 2,700 people in New York state. The coronavirus has so far killed 2,935 state residents — moms, dads, grandparents, brothers and sisters, a grim toll that’s straining the state’s morgues and funeral homes.

The symbolism of this landmark moment and its potential implications for New York are not lost on those who live here, in the American epicenter of the disease.

“We lived in a paradise, didn’t we, in this wonderful city?” asked Julia Vitullo-Martin, an Upper West Sider who writes about cities. “We had dance, theater, opera, we had everything, great sports. And now suddenly we don’t … A lot of things aren’t going to reopen.”