New governor adds 12K deaths to Cuomo’s publicized virus tally

ALBANY, N.Y. — Delivering another blow to what’s left of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s legacy, New York’s new governor acknowledged on her first day in office that the state has had nearly 12,000 more deaths from COVID-19 than Mr. Cuomo told the public.

“The public deserves a clear, honest picture of what’s happening. And that’s whether it’s good or bad, they need to know the truth. And that’s how we restore confidence,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said on NPR.

In its first daily update on the outbreak Tuesday evening, Ms. Hochul’s office reported that nearly 55,400 people have died of the coronavirus in New York based on death certificate data submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s up from about 43,400 Mr. Cuomo reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office. The Democrat, who was once widely acclaimed for his leadership during the COVID- 19 outbreak, resigned in the face of an impeachment drive after being accused of sexually harassing at least 11 women, allegations he disputed.

The higher number is not entirely new. Federal health officials and some academic institutions tracking COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have been using the higher tally for many months because of known gaps in the data Mr. Cuomo had been choosing to publicize.

But Ms. Hochul, who was lieutenant governor before being propelled to the state’s highest office, said it is vital to be fully transparent about the numbers. Her spokesperson, Haley Vicarro, said the governor consulted with the state Health Department before making the change to report both tallies going forward.

“There’s a lot of things that weren’t happening, and I’m going to make them happen,” Ms. Hochul said Wednesday on MSNBC. “Transparency will be the hallmark of my administration.”

Mr. Cuomo’s spokesperson, Rich Azzopardi, said the former governor’s administration reported death data daily.

“New York always reported these numbers and they were always publicly available,” Mr. Azzopardi said.

The Associated Press first reported in July on the large discrepancy between the figures publicized by the Cuomo administration and numbers the state was reporting to the CDC.

The count Mr. Cuomo used in his news media briefings and on the state’s

COVID-19 fatality tracker included only laboratoryc o n f i r m e d COVID-19 deaths reported through a state system that collects data from hospitals, nursing homes and adult care facilities.

That meant the tally excluded people who died at home, in hospice, in prisons or at state-run homes for people with disabilities. It also excluded people who probably died of COVID-19 but never got a positive test to confirm the diagnosis.

“There are presumed and confirmed deaths. People should know both,” Ms. Hochul said.

By Wednesday, the state’s website included the higher tally.

Under the Cuomo administration, the state Health Department refused to make an expert available to the AP to explain its continued decision to publicize only the lower tally.