What’s Behind The Sharp Rise In New York City’s Coronavirus Death Toll?

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April 15, 2020

TOPLINEThe coronavirus death toll in New York City was revised on Tuesday to include 3,700 people presumed to have died after catching coronavirus but who had not been tested, bringing the number of fatalities in the city to more than 10,000.

COVID-19 has spread to most countries around the world, claiming over 126,000 lives with infections … [+] at over 2 million people. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

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KEY FACTS

The 3,700 additional deaths occurred between March 11 and April 13 and include people thought to have had COVID-19 before they died in hospital or a care facility.

Health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said: “Behind every death is a friend, a family member, a loved one. We are focused on ensuring that every New Yorker who died because of COVID-19 gets counted,” Reuters reported.

New York City is at the centre of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., and now has more cases per capita than Italy, Europe’s worst-hit country.

The latest changes reflect how a testing shortfall has impacted official figures—before now, the city counted deaths where the person had tested positive for COVID-19.

It also shows how rapidly the impact of the virus is moving through the U.S.—it was only on Sunday that New York state recorded 10,000 deaths.

NYC’s revised figures push the U.S. coronavirus death toll to more than 26,000, while there are more than 600,000 cases—the most of any country, by far.

Key background: New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo has struck a slightly more optimistic tone in recent days—while he has acknowledged the tragic number of deaths, he said on Monday that the “worst is over” as hospitalizations and ICU admissions were starting to slow.

Tangent: Barbot told the New York Times that, in the shadow of the pandemic, some 3,000 people have died from causes unrelated to coronavirus, who might not have died had the crisis not occurred. The deaths could be down to an exceptionally stretched health system, by Barbot said that more analysis on the so-called excess deaths were needed.

Further reading: New York Surpasses 10,000 Coronavirus Deaths, But ‘The Worst Is Over,’ Cuomo Says (Forbes)

Why Coronavirus Deaths In England Could Be 15% Higher Than Government Estimates (Forbes)

Underreporting Of COVID-19 Coronavirus Deaths In The U.S. And Europe (Forbes)

Researchers Say Social Distancing To Prevent Coronavirus May Need To Continue Until 2022 (Forbes)

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