COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. may be 28% higher than official count, study estimates
LA TimesRabbi Shmuel Plafker places a temporary marker at the grave of David Tokar as he conducts his burial service at Mount Richmond Cemetery in the Staten Island borough of New York. Looking at the California data week by week, the study authors noted that the excess deaths began to appear several weeks before the state initiated widespread coronavirus testing. That put the Golden State well below the nationwide figure of 37.3 excess deaths per 100,000 people. In New York City alone, there were 299.1 excess deaths per 100,000 people; in the rest of the state, there were 111.4 excess deaths per 100,000 residents. The longer the pandemic goes on, the smaller the gap between excess deaths and official COVID-19 deaths becomes, the study authors wrote.