One thing I have noticed inn “the numbers” is they seemingly arbitrarily change the “cut off” all over the place. 7 PM, 5 AM, midnight, 10 PM. Intentionally or not it appears the data inflow was being throttled. That led to an impression that clearly was not true.
That’s because each state reported at different times. That’s been transparent. NY is reporting a few times per day. Other states once per day and at varying times.
I have noticed this too
And I have no idea where the NYT gets their data from but it’s different than what the states are reporting.