Nearly 100 coronavirus-related deaths have been confirmed among residents of Chautauqua County nursing homes in the last two years of the pandemic.

Information from New York state, previously criticized for not accurately representing the truth death toll, indicates that 90 residents have died due to COVID inside local nursing homes while seven have died due to the virus outside the facilities, either at hospitals or elsewhere. In Cattaraugus County, there have been 21 total COVID-related deaths.

As of Monday, the following statistics regarding confirmed virus deaths inside nursing homes and out-of-facility have been reported:

¯ Absolut Care of Westfield, 13

¯ Chautauqua Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 33

¯ Heritage Green Rehab and Skilled Nursing, 22

¯ Heritage Park Rehab and Skilled Nursing, 15

¯ Heritage Village Rehab and Skilled Nursing, 13

¯ Lutheran Retirement Home, 1.

The data is provided from each facility to the state Department of Health to “capture COVID-19 confirmed and COVID-19 presumed deaths at (nursing homes),” the state notes with its information.

At assisted living facilities, information of which is counted separately from nursing homes, there has been one death reported to date at Fredonia Place, five at the Frewsburg Rest Home, three at Memory Garden and four at Tanglewood Manor.

And at facilities in Chautauqua County designated as “other adult care,” there have been two deaths reported at Hultquist Place in Jamestown, six at St Columban’s on the Lake near Silver Creek and five at the WCA Home in Fredonia.

An audit released this week by the state Comptroller’s Office is again shedding light on the state’s handling of the virus as it spread among residents and staff at facilities across the state. The audit criticizes the state Department of Health for its response to COVID and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for under-reporting virus-related deaths at nursing homes and other assisted living facilities.

A January 2021 report by state Attorney General Letitia James found that the health department had undercounted the total deaths from COVID-19 within nursing homes by as much as 50 percent.

“Preliminary data obtained by OAG suggests that many nursing home residents died from COVID-19 in hospitals after being transferred from their nursing homes, which is not reflected in DOH’s published total nursing home death data,” the report states.

Overall, there have been 294 virus-related deaths in the county to date, according to information collected by the state.