The latest polling, conducted Feb. 12-21 among 3,203 registered voters in New York, found 57 percent approve of Cuomo’s job performance, down 6 percentage points since surveys conducted Feb. 2-11, before the New York Post reported that a top Cuomo aide told state lawmakers that the governor’s staff withheld information about the true scope of nursing home deaths out of fear that the numbers would “be used against us” by federal prosecutors in the Trump administration.

The share of New Yorkers who disapprove of Cuomo’s job performance also ticked up by 5 points — to 38 percent — in surveys conducted after the New York Post’s report, an indication that the appearance of a cover-up may be worse than the initial handling for some Empire State voters. By comparison, perceptions of Cuomo went unchanged in the aftermath of state Attorney General Letitia James’ Jan. 28 report that first revealed the undercounting of nursing home deaths…

Cuomo is still more popular than he was before the pandemic began. But the past 10 days have brought the governor his worst numbers since April, when he and a number of other state chief executives saw surges in popularity as they took active roles in tackling the virus. For Cuomo, the nursing home story may be snowballing into something more as he faces public allegations of political bullying from officials in his own party.