New York City healthcare authorities will now include suspected COVID-19 deaths to the official death count apart from the confirmed deaths. This decision comes after a leading publication named Gothamist reported that there has been an unprecedented number of COVID deaths in homes, that are not being counted as official, thus understating the numbers.
Stephanie Buhle, a spokeswoman for New York City’s Health Department commented, “The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) and the NYC Health Department are working together to include into their reports deaths that may be linked to COVID but not lab-confirmed that occur at home,”
While there is no official confirmation as to, from when these home-deaths will be officially counted, but it is being speculated that the inclusion will add a huge number to the already staggering death count of 3544.
New York City is one of the worst affected COVID hotspots in the world. As many as 727 people died between the 7th and 8th of April, and that number does not include the unreported/home deaths that might have occurred.
According to a report from the FDNY, 2,192 New York City residents passed away in their homes over the last two weeks. While all of these deaths might not be COVID-19 related, but a huge chunk of these definitely are. In the same period last year, there were only 453 home deaths.
While this deadly pandemic has swept across the entire word with China, Italy, and Spain being the initial victims, it now seems that the US is the latest one. People are dying in their homes, and there is a sense of helplessness among the healthcare officials, especially with no effective vaccination rolled out yet.