In a sobering update, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has confirmed that an additional seven New York City residents have died from hypothermia indoors, raising the death toll from the recent cold wave to 29.
This revised figure was disclosed after inquiries from The Post regarding a document listing 31 possible fatalities, which circulated among City Hall and various agencies during the unprecedented cold spell spanning mid-January to early February.
A spokesperson for City Hall confirmed that the seven additional indoor deaths, occurring between January 23 and February 10, were attributed to hypothermia, increasing the count of at-home fatalities to 14.
During this prolonged period of freezing temperatures, 19 individuals were found deceased outdoors. According to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, 15 of these deaths were due to hypothermia.
The remaining outdoor fatalities included three individuals who succumbed to overdoses, while another person died from a heart attack beneath the Manhattan Bridge, as reported by the OCME.
City Hall has not provided further details, and it is anticipated that this update represents the conclusive fatality count from the frigid weather conditions.
The Mamdani administration has been criticized for stumbling during the deep-freeze in managing the flow of information to the public about the cold-related deaths.
Officials didn’t release the information uniformly, or the full scope of what was being reported to them, the list seems to suggest.
City Hall refused to share any details other than the total number of dead until Feb. 9 — more than two weeks into the frigid weather.
Officials failed to provide general information on the outdoor deaths, such as names, ages, genders and even locations of where the victims’ bodies were found, until pressed repeatedly by reporters — and still haven’t provided all of the details in the 19 cases.
The admin on Monday also still refused to release any details at all about the 14 people who froze to death inside, again dismissing the need for transparency.
A City Hall rep justified the decision, saying that the admin didn’t need to share any additional information since the people had died in private homes.
City Hall took the lead in disseminating info about the reported cold deaths, rather than the NYPD of other involved agencies, like the Department of Social Services.
And several times, officials referred The Post’s requests for information to the NYPD, only for cops to send reporters back to City Hall.
City Hall chalked up the slow-walking to a “miscommunication” with agencies.
And press secretary Joe Calvello still touted that the admin “proactively” communicated information about the people found dead outside.
“We have been transparent in our communications and about the improvements that we were making to our response to the weather emergency in order to keep New Yorkers informed,” he claimed.
Local lawmakers and other critics have also ripped the Mamdani administration’s handling of the freezing weather, saying the new mayor didn’t do enough to get vulnerable people off the streets.
Mamdani insisted so-called involuntary removals would only be used as a last resort, and repeatedly defended the city’s homeless outreach during the subzero spell.
No cold deaths were reported by City Hall from the monster Feb. 22-23 blizzard that covered the Big Apple in nearly two feet of snow.
An apparently homeless 58-year-old man was found dead in a pile of snow in Central Park on Feb. 26, however, according to the NYPD and police sources.
