NEW YORK CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th August, 2021) The state of New York has added around 12,000 COVID-19 deaths to its pandemic toll as governor Kathy Hochul pledged in a radio interview on Wednesday not to cover up nursing home fatalities that her predecessor Andrew Cuomo had tried to pass off as unrelated.
New York State's Department of Health updated the COVID-19 death toll on its website to 55,395 from a previous 43,415, as Hochul told National Public Radio she planned to use data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, "which will be consistent."
"So, there's no opportunity for us to mask those numbers, nor would I want to mask those numbers," Hochul added.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in January that investigations by her office showed the Cuomo-led state administration undercounted coronavirus-related deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50 percent.
New York was one of the biggest COVID-19 hotspots at the height of the pandemic's breakout in the first half of 2020.
At its peak, the state had about 18,000 people in hospital with roughly 800 people dying a day from complications caused by the virus.
The 63-year-old Cuomo, who was New York governor for a decade, resigned in mid-August after another investigation led by Attorney General James found he had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women colleagues. Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing.
