Matt Stieb reports for New York Magazine that New York's COVID-19 death count is 11,000 fewer than the federal government has counted. As of this week, New York says there have been 43,000 COVID deaths, while the federal tally of New York’s deaths is at around 54,000. Follow New York's count, and the state is third in the nation for COVID-19 deaths. Listen to the federal government, and New York only trails California’s 64,000 deaths, even though that state has double the population. An Associated Press review of New York State Department of Health data found 3,200 more deaths as three probes into allegations that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration altered documents on nursing-home deaths continue. “It’s a little strange,” said Bob Anderson, chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. “They’re providing us with the death-certificate information so they have it. I don’t know why they wouldn’t use those numbers.” The Cuomo administration seems to be leaving out people who died at home, in hospice, in state prisons, or state-run homes for people living with disabilities. The Associated Press reports state death counts are usually higher than CDC numbers, as the federal agency must wait for the data to be reported up to them. “The Feds are always going to be behind,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director at the American Public Health Association. “They’ve got to do their due diligence to validate their numbers they’ve got.” But for COVID-19, New York trails the federal data. Read more about this story at New York Magazine.