New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has acknowledged that his office should not have withheld data on Covid-19 nursing home deaths from state lawmakers, the public and press — falling short of an apology a senior aide made to lawmakers last week.

Cuomo said at a press conference that “lessons were learned” in not releasing the data and that things “should have been done differently”.

“The last thing I wanted to do was aggravate a terrible situation,” said Cuomo, a third-term Democrat. “There were people’s requests, press requests that were not answered in a timely manner.”

According to Reuters, more than 15,000 people have died in New York state’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities from Covid-19, but as recently as last month, the state reported only 8,500 deaths.