Under Hochul, new calculation of New York’s COVID death toll rises by about 12,000

(The Center Square) – With a new governor in place, New York also has a new method of reporting COVID-19 data. On Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul revealed additional information regarding the state’s death toll.

For nearly 18 months, the state only announced COVID-19 deaths that happened at hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH) tracked those deaths through its reporting system. The new report includes a second total with a broader definition that includes fatalities reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by state and New York City officials.

That second total shows the death toll at 55,395 New Yorkers as of Tuesday. That’s nearly 12,000 more than the total the Cuomo Administration publicized, which stands at 43,415.

“This daily COVID-19 provisional death certificate data reported by NYS DOH and NYC to the CDC includes those who died in any location, including hospitals, nursing homes, adult care facilities, at home, in hospice and other settings,” the statement released by the governor’s statement read.

Critics of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both Republican and Democrat, seized the moment.

State Sen. Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, said on Twitter that the revelation was a “positive step for more transparency” by the new Democratic governor.

Then, he called on her to fire state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker immediately.

“Zucker was Cuomo’s chief enabler in hiding these numbers and covering up the deaths of thousands from COVID-19 in NY’s nursing homes,” Tedisco said.

Assemblymember Ron Kim, D-Queens, was the target of Cuomo’s scorn after he publicly questioned the governor’s policies regarding nursing homes. His uncle died from the coronavirus at one of those facilities.

Kim told 1010 WINS on Wednesday that the new figure and the lives they represent are more than just a statistic.

“We’re talking about 12,000 lives,” he said. “Family members, stories, intergenerational knowledge that has been lost. It is our duty now to go back, to fully understand why Andrew Cuomo did what he did, how we got to this point and to make sure that the policies, the decision-making that went into this are never repeated in the state of New York.”

Lawmakers weren’t the only ones who questioned how Cuomo and his administration reported the COVID death toll. In January, state Attorney General Letitia James issued a report that found scores of deaths attributable to nursing homes were actually reported as hospital deaths. The report reviewed data from 62 of the 619 nursing homes. The overall number from the DOH reports did not change, but the report said the nursing home deaths were undercounted by about 56 percent.

The Empire Center, an independent nonprofit think tank, submitted more than 60 Freedom of Information Law requests seeking information about the state’s reporting policies.

Bill Hammond, a senior fellow on health policy, said in a statement that one of the requests focused on the total reported to the CDC. The Cuomo administration denied that request on Monday.

Cuomo’s policies omitted people who died during the early stages of the pandemic but weren’t able to get tested as well as scores of other people who died in their own homes or in state-run facilities like prisons or group homes.

While the state now knows the greater impact of the pandemic, “we know nothing else,” Hammond said.

“Secrecy about pandemic data is both bad public policy and a violation of the Freedom of Information Law,” he added. “The governor who initiated these bad practices is gone now. His replacement should set a new tone of maximum transparency, especially and urgently with respect to pandemic records.”

Cuomo’s COVID-19 nursing home policies were a subject of the impeachment investigation the Assembly Judiciary Committee was conducting before Cuomo’s resignation, which took effect Monday. After initially announcing that work would be suspended upon the former governor’s departure, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Lavine, D-Glen Cove, have since said the panel will issue a report on their findings.

Some lawmakers, including Kim, have continued to press for Cuomo’s impeachment. While that is not likely to happen, the former governor does face federal investigations into his handling of nursing homes.

Disclaimer: This content is distributed by The Center Square