Cuomo's true COVID death toll: NY state officially adds the 12K deaths that disgraced ex-governor left out of HIS tally to increase the number of pandemic dead to 55K
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has acknowledged nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state from COVID-19 than had been publicized by her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.
On Wednesday, New York quietly updated its COVID death toll to nearly 55,400 based on death certificate data submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
This is a 27 percent increase from the 43,415 that Cuomo reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office.
The reason for the discrepancy is that the count used by the former governor in his news briefings only included laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 deaths reported through a state system that collects data from hospitals, nursing homes and adult care facilities.
This means the tally excluded people who died at home, hospice, in state prisons or at state-run homes for people living with disabilities.
It also did not count people who likely died of COVID-19 but never got a positive test to confirm the diagnosis. When these missing groups are added to the death toll, it actually stands at 55,395, according to Hochul's administration.
Hochul's office reported that nearly 55,400 people have died of the coronavirus in New York State based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC. That's up from about 43,400 that Cuomo reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office. The count used by Cuomo (in pink on the chart above) in his media briefings only included laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 deaths
New York Governor Kathy Hochul (pictured left) has acknowledged nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state from COVID-19 than had been publicized by her predecessor Andrew Cuomo (pictured, right)
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Hochul made it clear she was distancing herself from Cuomo, who resigned after being labeled a serial sex harasser earlier this month in a report conducted by state Attorney General Letitia James. It upholds the allegations of 11 women who say Cuomo sexually harassed them.
The updated death toll comes as Cuomo's administration is under investigation for its handling of nursing home coronavirus deaths, which were also underreported.
'We're now releasing more data than had been released before publicly, so people know the nursing home deaths and the hospital deaths are consistent with what's being displayed by the CDC,' Hochul told MSNBC on Wednesday.
'There's a lot of things that weren't happening and I'm going to make them happen. Transparency will be the hallmark of my administration.'
The Associated Press first reported in July on the large discrepancy between the fatality numbers publicized by the Cuomo administration and numbers the state was reporting to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That lower number favored by the Cuomo administration still appeared in the daily update put out by Hochul's office on Tuesday, but with an explanation about why it was an incomplete count.
'There are presumed and confirmed deaths. People should know both,' Hochul said during a Wednesday morning appearance on NPR.
'Also, as of yesterday, we're using CDC numbers, which will be consistent. And so there's no opportunity for us to mask those numbers, nor do I want to mask those numbers.
'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.'
The State Assembly launched impeachment proceedings after James' report was released and three district attorneys opened criminal investigations into the allegations.
The impeachment investigating committee also was looking at the nursing home issue and was investigating whether or not Cuomo used state resources to fund his self-congratulating COVID memoir, Lessons in Leadership.
Before any kind of public impeachment trial could get underway, Cuomo resigned and the State Assembly dropped its impeachment inquiry.
Cuomo's administration sent thousands of COVID-19 positive patients into nursing homes by signing a mandate that forced homes to take them.
Officials then obscured the number of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents by marking them as hospital deaths.
Cuomo used those lower numbers last year to erroneously claim that New York was seeing a much smaller percentage of nursing home residents dying of COVID-19 than other states.
There was no mention of the nursing home scandal as he eulogized his time in office and congratulated New Yorkers for how they handled the pandemic.
'I gave it my best...I tried my best to deliver for you. I want to thank my team, my family for their sacrifice and help in serving you,' he said during his farewell address.