A New York state audit released this week found the state's health department under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo failed to publicly account for 4,100 COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents.
The 41-page audit found officials at times underreported the full death toll by as much as 50 percent from April 2020 to February 2021. Officials did not provide auditors with a breakdown by name of the nursing home residents who died from COVID-19, and the actual number of residents who died is still uncertain, The New York Times reported March 15.
The audit marks the third state inquiry confirming how Mr. Cuomo’s administration "significantly downplayed" the number of nursing home pandemic deaths, according to the Times.