One day after the U.S. recorded a single-day record of 1,352 coronavirus deaths, bringing the nationwide total over 8,300, a new report by The New York Times says that the official U.S. fatality total in the pandemic has been undercounted, and that the true death toll is likely much higher.

One former Republican political consultant, MSNBC host Nicole Wallace, reacted to the NYT report via her Twitter account, saying that a “huge scandal over testing (is) about to unfold in this country.”

The continuing shortage of available coronavirus tests is only one reason for the death toll undercount, according to the report. There is also “no uniform system for reporting coronavirus-related deaths,” according to the paper’s reporters, Sarah Kliff and Julie Bosman.

In fact, Cliff and Bosman recount one incident in Virginia in which a funeral director was told to prepare remains of three coronavirus victims, but only one of the three individuals had a death certificate listing coronavirus as the cause.

“Inconsistent protocols, limited resources and a patchwork of decision-making,” have all contributed to a situation in which the true number of American deaths from coronavirus has become impossible to ascertain, the report claimed.

According to a Politico reporter who has covered the pandemic, as the scale of the outbreak became evident, Donald Trump “made clear” that a lower number of tests would help keep the overall coronavirus case numbers low, which would aid his re-election effort.

Donald Trump reportedly wanted to slow coronavirus testing to keep case numbers low. Featured image credit: Win McNamee Getty Images

The U.S. appears set to pass the 10,000-death mark on Monday, according to data compiled by the population statistics site Worldometer. As of about 8:45 p.m. ET, the country had seen 1,159 fatalities on Sunday, bringing the overall toll to 9,610. According to the Worldometer numbers, the U.S. was seeing coronavirus deaths at a rate of 29 per 1 million population.

That rate is well below world leader Spain’s 270, and Italy’s 263, but is more than three times the global average of 8.9 deaths per million, according to Worldometer figures. Those numbers are based on official reports.

Accurate death counts are vital in understanding disease outbreaks and pandemics in general, Kliff and Bosman wrote. High death tolls lead governments to be willing to “disrupt normal life” in order to slow the spread of the disease. They also allow the federal government to more efficiently direct needed medical supplies such as ventilators and personal protective equipment to specific localities.

The U.S. death count has also been hampered by the lack of testing early in the outbreak, in late January and February, when coronavirus deaths may have simply been “overlooked,” The New York Times reported.