ALBANY, N.Y. — New York may have undercounted COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents by thousands. That’s according to a new report from the state attorney general that dealt a blow to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s claims that his state is doing better than others in protecting its most vulnerable.
Attorney General Letitia James has, for months, been examining discrepancies between the number of deaths being reported by the state’s Department of Health, and the number of deaths reported by the homes themselves. Her investigators looked at a sample of 62 of the state’s roughly 600 nursing homes. They reported 1,914 deaths of residents from COVID-19, while the state Department of Health logged only 1,229 deaths at those…