An audit finds that the Cuomo administration ‘misled the public’ on nursing home deaths in New York.

The administration of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo didn’t publicly account for the deaths of about 4,100 nursing dwelling residents in New York in the course of the pandemic, in response to an audit launched on Tuesday by the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli.

The audit discovered that Well being Division officers at instances underreported the total demise toll by as a lot as 50 p.c from April 2020 to February 2021, as Mr. Cuomo confronted growing scrutiny over whether or not his administration had deliberately hid the precise variety of deaths.

“The general public was misled by these on the highest stage of state authorities by way of distortion and suppression of the info when New Yorkers deserved the reality,” Mr. DiNapoli stated in a press release.

The report discovered that the underreporting of the demise knowledge was initially a results of poor knowledge assortment by the Well being Division when New York unexpectedly grew to become the epicenter of the pandemic in March 2020. However officers nonetheless didn’t launch the total extent of nursing dwelling deaths at the same time as the information gathering improved.

By Might 2020, the report suggests, well being officers possessed principally dependable numbers that would have been made public.

Greater than 67,000 folks have died due to the coronavirus in New York for the reason that starting of the pandemic. As of Tuesday, 15,360 of these had been nursing dwelling residents, in response to state knowledge.

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, finally resigned in August because of the controversy over nursing dwelling deaths and different scandals that engulfed his administration, together with accusations of sexual harassment from quite a few girls.

The audit’s launch comes as Mr. Cuomo is wading again into public life, looking for to rehabilitate his picture.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien contributed reporting.