Delivering another blow to what's left of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo's legacy, the state's new governor acknowledged on her first day in office that New York has had nearly 12,000 more deaths from COVID-19 than Cuomo told the public.

"The public deserves a clear, honest picture of what's happening. And that's whether it's good or bad, they need to know the truth. And that's how we restore confidence," Gov. Kathy Hochul said on NPR.

New York is now reporting that nearly 55,400 people have died of COVID-19 in the state based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC, up from about 43,400 that Cuomo had reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office.

"We're now releasing more data than had been released before publicly, so people know the nursing home deaths and the hospital deaths are consistent with what's being displayed by the CDC," Hochul said Wednesday on MSNBC.

"There's a lot of things that weren't happening and I'm going to make them happen. Transparency will be the hallmark of my administration."

Cuomo's lawyer, Rita Glavin, and his campaign staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Democrat, once widely acclaimed for his leadership during the COVID-19 outbreak, resigned in the face of an impeachment drive after being accused of sexually harassing at least 11 women, allegations he has disputed.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/new-york-covid-19-deaths-1.6152633