ALBANY, N.Y. (AP - Modified) — New Gov. Kathy Hochul promised more government transparency on her first day in office, and by day’s end her administration had quietly delivered it by acknowledging nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state from COVID-19 than had been publicized by her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.
New York now reports 55,395 people have died of COVID-19 in New York based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC, up from the roughly 43,400 that Gov. Cuomo had reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office.
Governor Hochul was a guest on MSNBC's Morning Joe and NPR's Morning Edition Wednesday and addressed the subject.
Transparency starting just today, 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. 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. It's not hard to do, you just get the information out there and address them.
There are presumed and confirmed deaths. People should know both. Also, as of yesterday, we're using CDC numbers which'll be consistent. So, there's no opportunity for us to mask those numbers, nor would I want to mask those numbers. The public deserves a clear honest picture of what's happening. Whether it's good or bad, they need to know the truth and that's how we restore confidence, when they know there will always be truthful and very transparent in my approach to government. And not just with respect to nursing homes, every aspect of government. That's been what I've done for twenty seven years of elective office, it's not a new concept me.
The new governor’s move follows reporting by The Associated Press in July about the Cuomo administration’s use of a much stricter definition of COVID-19 than other populous states hit by the pandemic.
