Show us the numbers

There’s no sugarcoating the awful fact COVID-19 has killed more than 32,000 New Yorkers — a death toll more than double that of any other state. What New Yorkers still don’t know, but deserve to know, and soon, is how many of the thousands dead were nursing home residents, and why it’s taking Gov. Cuomo and his Health Department so long to count them.

Officially, the state tallies deaths in nursing homes at more than 6,600.

The real count is likely greater, because unlike other states with serious outbreaks, health officials here include only those deaths that occurred inside a nursing home’s four walls, omitting statistics of residents who died in hospitals. One clue the real death toll may be much higher: 21,000 nursing home beds are currently empty, 13,000 more vacancies than normal.

Fatality data nursing homes were required to submit to federal regulators starting in May shows nursing homes reported fatality figures 65% higher from early June to mid-July than the state’s confirmed numbers for the same period.

But while Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker recently promised lawmakers a full accounting of actual nursing home resident deaths, he’s given no timeframe for making good on his pledge.

Until the actual number of nursing home deaths is known, Cuomo must halt his insistence that New York ranks 46th out of all 50 states in nursing home deaths as a percentage of total deaths statewide. It’s sleight of hand and sophistry.