'NYC COVID-19 death toll may be worse than official tally'

A new report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that there were over 5,000 deaths in New York City between March and early May that were not previously identified.

The report released on Monday suggested the true number of cases and deaths in New York City is likely much higher than reported as some people infected went undetected, reports Xinhua news agency.

New York City health officials reported a total of 13,831 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19-associated deaths, and 5,048 probable COVID-19-associated deaths between March 11 and May 2 in New York City, according to the CDC report.

The number of confirmed or probable COVID-19 deaths might not include deaths among persons with the coronavirus infection "who did not access diagnostic testing, tested falsely negative, or became infected after testing negative, died outside of a health care setting, or for whom COVID-19 was not suspected by a health care provider as a cause of death", the report said.

This number also does not include death cases that are not directly associated with the coronavirus infection, it added.

There were an additional 5,293 deaths that were not previously identified as confirmed or probable coronavirus cases that "might have been directly or indirectly attributable to the pandemic", the CDC said.

New York state, the epicentre of the pandemic in the US, has reported a total of 26,682 COVID-19 fatalities, with 337,055 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University.