New York City’s Death Toll Jumps By More Than 3,700 After Officials Take Into Account Probable Cases

The New York Times: N.Y.C. Death Toll Soars Past 10,000 In Revised Virus Count
New York City, already a world epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, sharply increased its death toll by more than 3,700 victims on Tuesday, after officials said they were now including people who had never tested positive for the virus but were presumed to have died of it. The new figures, released by the city’s Health Department, drove up the number of people killed in New York City to more than 10,000, and appeared to increase the overall United States death count by 17 percent to more than 26,000. (Goodman and Rashbaum, 4/14)

Reuters: New York City Posts Sharp Spike In Coronavirus Deaths After Untested Victims Added
With only a tiny fraction of the U.S. population tested for coronavirus, the number of known infections climbed to more than 600,000 as of Tuesday, according to a running Reuters tally. U.S. public health authorities have generally only attributed deaths to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, when patients tested positive for the virus. New York City’s Health Department said it will now also count any fatality deemed a “probable” coronavirus death, defined as a victim whose “death certificate lists as a cause of death ‘COVID-19’ or an equivalent.” (Chiacu and Caspani, 4/14)

The Associated Press: Death Toll Soars After NYC Counts 'Probable' Fatalities
“Behind every death is a friend, a family member, a loved one. We are focused on ensuring that every New Yorker who died because of COVID-19 gets counted,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. “While these data reflect the tragic impact that the virus has had on our city, they will also help us to determine the scale and scope of the epidemic and guide us in our decisions.” New Yorkers continue to die at an unnerving pace even as the number of patients in hospitals has leveled off. (Matthews, Sisak and Villeneuve, 4/15)

Politico: NYC Death Toll Jumps By 3,700 After Uncounted Fatalities Are Added
People whose death certificates don’t mention the virus still are not counted. From March 11 through April 13, 8,184 city residents died of causes not classified as confirmed or probable coronavirus. Among probable coronavirus deaths, 60 percent happened in hospitals, 22 percent in the victim's home and 18 percent in nursing homes or long-term care facilities. Brooklyn residents represented the most probable deaths, followed by Queens and the Bronx. (Durkin, 4/14)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Adds 3,778 People To Its Coronavirus Death Toll 
The city’s stark news came after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday morning he saw promising signs that efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus had led to a plateau in hospitalizations, but expressed concern about a rise of deaths in nursing homes. “We’ve been worrying about nursing homes from day one,” he said, noting that nursing home outbreaks early on in Washington state had raised red flags for officials here. “That is the vulnerable population in the vulnerable place,” he said. (Honan and Brody, 4/14)

ABC News: At Least 26 New York City Homeless, Among Hundreds Of Cases, Have Died From COVID-19 
At least 26 homeless people among the 421 confirmed to have COVID-19 in New York City had died as of Tuesday, city officials said. "As our city confronts this virus, we are marshaling every tool and resource at our disposal to meet this moment and protect the New Yorkers who we serve," the New York City Department of Social Services said in a statement. (Katersky and Torres, 4/14)

ProPublica: There’s Been a Spike in People Dying at Home in Several Cities. That Suggests Coronavirus Deaths Are Higher Than Reported.
In recent weeks, residents outside Boston have died at home much more often than usual. In Detroit, authorities are responding to nearly four times the number of reports of dead bodies. And in New York, city officials are recording more than 200 home deaths per day — a nearly sixfold increase from recent years. As of Tuesday afternoon, the United States had logged more than 592,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 24,000 deaths, the most in the world, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. (Gillum, Song and Kao, 4/14)

CNN: US Coronavirus: Highest Number Of Deaths In A Day Recorded After Several Days Of A Downward Trend 
The US recorded its highest number of coronavirus deaths in a day after several days in which the death toll had fallen or was nearly flat. The daily death toll was 2,405 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases, bringing the total number of US deaths to 26,033. At least 609,240 people have been infected with the virus in the US. (Maxouris, 4/15)

The Hill: Coronavirus Death Toll In US Surpasses 25K 
Last week, the U.S. passed Italy as the nation with the most deaths from COVID-19 and it continues to lead by more than 4,000. The United States accounts for more than a quarter of the total recorded cases globally, though testing resources and population vary in affected countries. Though the U.S. has much higher case rates than other countries, its fatality rate of just over 4 percent is lower than in other places, such as Italy and Spain. Worldwide, COVID-19 has killed a little more than 6 percent of confirmed cases. (Moreno, 4/14)

The New York Times: Treating Coronavirus In A Central Park ‘Hot Zone’
Rubber boots hung from a tree of wooden pegs in soggy Central Park after being sterilized with chlorine. Workers observed a one-way flow into and out of what they referred to as “the hot zone” of patient treatment tents. Step by step, they removed their isolation suits in a designated area, as a monitor barked instructions. “I like to liken it to a checklist that a pilot goes through before he starts the engine,” Dr. Elliott Tenpenny, the unit’s medical director, said on Monday. “You do it exactly the same way every single time.” (Fink, 4/15)