ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The federal government’s count of the coronavirus dead in New York has 11,000 more victims than the tally publicized by the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which has stuck with a far more conservative approach to counting COVID-19 deaths. The discrepancy in death counts has continued to widen this year, according to an Associated Press review. New York state’s official death count is around 43,000. But the state has provided the federal government with data showing roughly 54,000 people have died with COVID-19 as a cause or contributing factor listed on their death certificate. Experts say differing death tolls fuels public distrust in the nation’s pandemic response.
Photo: FILE – In this March 21, 2021 file photo, a box with the cremated ashes of Dnynia Armstrong, center, a nursing home COVID-19 victim, surrounded with baskets of pinecones representing other nursing home pandemic deaths, is displayed during a news conference in New York. More than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration’s death toll is still nearly 11,000 lower than the federal government’s own tally. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
