Broome Corrects Covid Count Anomaly

Broome County officials say they have corrected a disparity in numbers concerning the coronavirus listed on the county’s website.

Executive Jason Garnar says as soon as a clerical error was discovered that under-reported the number of cases and deaths, the Health Department listing was updated and now shows, as of May 27, 41 Broome County residents have lost their lives to COVID-19 while there have been 527 positive cases since the pandemic began.

There is still a disagreement in the number of cases between New York State and the Broome County listings, which has been the case since the figures began to be publicized in March.

Broome County Health Department Director Rebecca Kauffman explains that the county and state use different guidelines for the listings concerning what county a patient lists as an address and where they are treated. 

Chenango County reports 123 positive cases and 5 deaths, Delaware County had 73 cases and 4 deaths at the last update and Tioga County yesterday reported four new cases for a total of 136 and 21 deaths.

New York State is still lingering at its record low number for new coronavirus deaths recorded overnight May 25 at 73.  Governor Andrew Cuomo May 27 reported 74 deaths and 1,129 new cases for a total of 364,965 COVID-19 diagnoses.