New York City revises coronavirus death toll to add 3,700 more deaths

NYC deathtoll.
(Image credit: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

New York City has made a devastating revision to its already massive coronavirus death toll.

On Tuesday, the city's health department released a revised COVID-19 death count that included those who were not tested but were presumed to have died from the disease. That added an additional 3,700 people, bumping the city's total count well over 10,000 coronavirus fatalities.

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The previous death count only included people who had tested positive for COVID-19, but New York City's health department had been recording presumptive cases, the Times reports. "In the heat of battle, our primary focus has been on saving lives," Mayor Bill de Blasio's press secretary said, but de Blasio moved to release the additional data after a series of weekend briefings. Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio have all recently moved to start reporting presumptive COVID-19 deaths.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.