The Hochul administration is acknowledging nearly 12,000 more COVID-19 deaths in the state than had been previously publicized by the Cuomo administration. 

New York is now reporting more than 55,000 deaths, based on death certificate data sent to the Centers for Disease Control.

The Empire Center’s Senior Fellow for Health Policy Bill Hammond told Capital Tonight that the reason the Cuomo administration opted not to report all COVID deaths is “a bit of a mystery."

Hammond and his colleagues have submitted over 60 Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to New York state relating to the COVID pandemic. The vast majority of them are still pending.

“So, this is kind of a symbolic move from the Hochul administration to show that they’re going to be more transparent, more open about what’s going on with Coronavirus data,” Hammond said. 

Hammond stated that even as late as Monday, the last day Andrew Cuomo was in office, that administration was continuing to stonewall his requests.

“On Monday, just before the Hochul administration made this change, we had requested the details on this same data set, the total number of deaths, and they denied our request. They just referred us to the data they’d already released,” Hammond said.

“Governor Hochul is deeply committed to transparency and restoring trust in government," Haley Viccaro, senior advisor for communications said in a statement. "Upon advice from and consultation with the Department of Health, starting on day one of the Hochul Administration, we began including an additional data set from the CDC in the daily reports to be as open and transparent as possible. This data set, which is death certificate numbers that have been reported to and compiled by the CDC, was not included before in the State's daily reports. We will always prioritize open communication with New Yorkers as we work together to battle the pandemic."

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, also released a statement on the reporting of additional COVID deaths:

"In August 2020, when testing became widely available, DOH issued a health order mandating that any presumed COVID death be tested to ensure accuracy in numbers. As such, the State reported daily and clearly labeled confirmed COVID deaths. At the same time, the CDC requested "presumed" COVID deaths, which are not lab confirmed. New York always reported these numbers and they were always publicly available."