>>19403391 (lb)
I'm guessing the first layer of the conspiracy is to make it seem like they don't want to report the numbers because a huge number will make Biden look bad.
This would enable Trump to blame democrat environmental policies.
Second layer is that they killed those people intentionally and don't want the number to roll out.
Of course, they might just be postponing the total, so they can continuously update for maximum trauma. The more often they remind people it happened, the more long term damage it does.