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

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.

New York City was already the epicenter of coronavirus spread both in the U.S. and the world, reporting well over 7,000 verified COVID-19 deaths on Monday. These 3,700 additional deaths mark a massive 17 percent increase to the national death toll, putting it over 26,000, The New York Times notes.

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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.