Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration undercounted COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by more than 4,000 during the pandemic, according to an audit released on March 15 by the state comptroller. The audit, released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, accuses the New York State Department of Health of having “misled the public” during the COVID-19 pandemic, and at certain points of having undercounted the number of nursing home deaths by more than 50 percent. While the audit states that the lack of transparency could potentially have been due to the “poor quality data” that the health department was collecting early on during the outbreak, this was likely a “deliberate decision” at certain periods during the pandemic. As an example, from April 12, 2020 to Feb. 3, 2021, the Department frequently changed its basis for reporting coronavirus deaths in nursing homes. At one point, officials only reported resident deaths that occurred at the nursing home …