HIGHER AND HIGHER

Official U.S. Coronavirus Death Count Reaches 10,000

The U.S. has reported at least 10,000 coronavirus-related deaths, but experts say that’s likely to be a significant underestimate.

The United States coronavirus death count surpassed 10,000 on Monday. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, at least 10,335 people have died from the virus across the country, including 3,048 in New York City. However, The New York Times has spoken to a number of experts who say that figure is a significant underestimate. Hospital officials, doctors, public-health experts, and medical examiners reportedly told the newspaper that they doubt the official count. They say limited resources and inconsistent decision-making from one state or county to the next have driven down the official figure. In some rural areas, coroners say they don’t have the tests they need to detect COVID-19, and experts say some deaths early on in the crisis were likely misidentified as influenza or only described as pneumonia. “We definitely think there are deaths that we have not accounted for,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, which has become the global authority on the tracking of the pandemic.