The Department of Public Health changed how it counts COVID-19 deaths in Massachusetts long-term care facilities on Thursday, aligning with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's national definition — and in the process, cutting the state's cumulative long-term care death toll by 1,220. In Thursday's weekly report, DPH started using the federal standard for long-term care deaths, which counts all residents of a facility who died from COVID complications in a facility, hospital or other location, but does not count those who recovered from COVID-19 and later died. Up to this point, Massachusetts had counted all long-term care residents who contracted the virus at some point before they died — even those who recovered between their bout with the illness and their death — as COVID-19 long-term care deaths. The new standard mirrors the CDC's recommendation and that in place in most other states, according to the Baker administration.