Albany, New York – The new New York governor Gov. Kathy Hochul promised more government transparency from her office on her first day and was quickly seen into action when at the end of the day, her administration acknowledged 12,000 more deaths in the state compared to the publicized information by her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.
The rise of deaths and the number of infected individuals has always been put into much discussion as people question the authenticity of reports.
“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 said Wednesday on MSNBC.
“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 state of New York now reports almost 55,400 people have died of COVID-19 based on death certificates submitted to CDC, up from about 43,400 that previous governor Andrew Cuomo had reported Monday, on his last day in office.
The Associated Press first reported in July the large difference between the fatality numbers publicized by the Cuomo administration and the numbers the state was reporting to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Recommended Read: California Wildfires: President Biden Approves Major Crisis Declaration
“There are presumed and confirmed deaths. People should know both,” Hochul said in 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 data about the lower number of deaths reported by the Cuomo administration still appeared on the daily update released by Hochul’s office on Tuesday, but with an explanation as to why it is considered an incomplete count.