New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Monday attempted to spin a new report from New York Attorney General Letitia James that said the number of COVID-related fatalities in state nursing homes were underreported by as much as 50 percent.
According to Cuomo, COVID outbreaks in nursing homes weren’t a result of his directive to move COVID-positive patients from hospitals into the homes. Instead, he had multiple “theories” about what took place.
Cuomo said staff were responsible for the outbreaks.
“Fact: of the 613 nursing homes – we have 613 nursing homes in the state – 365 received a person from a hospital. Of the 365 that received a person from this March 25th guidance, which was then superseded in May, 98 percent of those 365 already had COVID in their facilities,” Cuomo said. “COVID did not get into the nursing homes from people coming from hospitals. COVID got into the nursing homes by staff walking into the nursing home.”
He also emphasized that all deaths, both in nursing homes and hospitals, were always reported and available to the public.
“To be clear, all the deaths in the nursing homes and in the hospitals were always fully publicly and accurately reported. The numbers were the numbers. Always,” he said.
The governor said New York State Department of Health “fully and publicly” reported all nursing home and hospital deaths.
“They have always been fully reported,” Cuomo reiterated. “Nursing homes had the most vulnerable populations. We know that. Nationwide, 36 percent of the [COVID-related] deaths are in nursing homes. You know what percent of the population are in nursing homes? One percent. One percent are 36 percent of the deaths. New York is 34th in total nursing home deaths, 34 out of 50 states,” he said.
Nursing home staff “presumed” patients died with COVID.
Cuomo then went on to talk about the state’s “presumed fatalities,” where staff makes the determination the patient died from the coronavirus instead of knowing definitively.
“New York is only one of seven states with ‘presumed fatalities,’ where the nursing home presumes the cause of death,” he said.
New York began omitting nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 at a hospital from their reporting in early May, around the same time the Cuomo administration revoked its March 25 order requiring nursing homes to accept patients who were infected with the virus.
The Associated Press reported that over 9,000 recovering COVID-19 patients were released into New York nursing homes because of the Cuomo administration’s directive, which prohibited nursing homes from obtaining negative tests from patients before their admission.
Cuomo’s top aide, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa, told state lawmakers during a call last week that they withheld the true number of nursing home deaths from COVID-19 out of fear from federal prosecutors, according to the New York Post.
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This is an excerpt from TownHall.
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