NYC Coronavirus Death Toll Rises To Likely 20K

NEW YORK CITY — More than 20,000 New York City dwellers have likely lost their lives to coronavirus, according to a Health Department website that was quietly updated late Monday night.

COVID-19 claimed the lives of 14,928 New Yorkers who received tests and another 5,128 likely died from the virus, for a total of 20,056, city data show.

The daily toll is usually updated daily between noon and 2 p.m., but on the day the numbers surpassed 20,000, the Health Department waited until late evening, raising concerns over transparency.

"There were delays last night uploading our data," said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. "It doesn't serve anybody to try and hide data."

New York City's numbers also spiked by 3,600 new cases, bringing the total to 183,662, after the Health Department added previously diagnosed New Yorkers who had missing address information, according to the website.

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The numbers might be even higher, according to a new analysis — released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — that estimates about 24,000 more people died in between March 11 and May 2 than researchers would ordinarily expect during that time period.

That's about 5,300 more deaths than were blamed on the coronavirus in official tallies during those weeks.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, repeatedly quizzed about the delayed release of COVID-19 data during his daily press briefing, said his priority was not releasing information.

"We are focused right now on saving lives now," said de Blasio. "I don't want us to get so lost in the past that we forget there are things right now we have to do."

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