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But Zucker also acknowledged that the state health department’s own audit of nursing home data shows that more than 3,800 nursing home residents died in hospitals from March 1 of last year to Jan. 19, putting the total number of state COVID-19 deaths tied to nursing homes at almost 13,000. “The investigations also revealed that nursing homes’ lack of compliance with infection control protocols put residents at increased risk of harm, and facilities that had lower pre-pandemic staffing ratings had higher COVID-19 fatality rates,” the report states. The report, based on preliminary findings, suggests that a larger number of long-term care residents died from the virus than reflected in state Department of Health data and that government guidance requiring admission of Covid-19 patients into nursing homes may have put residents at increased risk of harm. The state has been accused of depressing the total number of deaths by only counting those that occurred in the facilities, leaving out any resident who was transferred to a hospital. On March 4, 2021, interviews and reports from The New York Times found that several of Cuomo's aides, Melissa DeRosa, Linda Lacewell and Jim Malatras had rewritten a report from state health officials to omit 9,250 COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents. Following Attorney Genera Letitia James' January report that first exposed the cover-up, Cuomo's administration released complete data, including the nursing home deaths, and cited the possibility of a politically-motivated investigation from the Department of Justice as a justification.
The governor has highlighted his leadership during the pandemic, which has killed more than 40,000 people in New York. That statistic could add thousands to the state’s official care home death toll of just over 6,600. But so far the administration of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has refused to divulge the number, leading to speculation the state is manipulating the figures to make it appear it is doing better than other states and to make a tragic situation less dire.
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But discrepancies also lie among the on-site deaths reported directly by nursing homes to the attorney general investigators and those publicized by the DOH, the report shows. While the 62 nursing homes surveyed reported 1,266 facility deaths, the DOH publicized only 1,229 for the same homes. New York health chief Zucker explained during the legislative hearing that New York only counts deaths on the nursing home property to avoid “double-counting” deaths in both the home and the hospital. And while he acknowledged the state keeps a running count of nursing home resident deaths at hospitals, he declined to provide even a rough estimate to lawmakers.
At another for-profit facility on Long Island, COVID-19 patients who were transferred to the facility after a hospital stay and were supposed to be placed in a separate COVID-19 unit in the nursing home were, in fact, scattered throughout the facility despite available beds in the COVID-19 unit. This situation was allegedly resolved only after someone at the facility learned of an impending DOH infection control visit scheduled for the next day, before which those residents were hurriedly transferred to the appropriate designated unit. The report also noted that some nursing homes failed to follow basic steps to control the spread of coronavirus — for example, continuing communal dining practices and not isolating residents who tested positive.
Cuomo is smirking at James’ scandal, but he still has worse to answer for
At issue was a policy issued in March 2020 that effectively ordered nursing homes to take back residents who had been discharged from hospitals after being treated for Covid-19. The goal was to keep virus patients from overwhelming hospitals, a step other states also took. In April, The New York Times reported that Mr. Cuomo’s aides had gone to far greater lengths than previously known to obscure the death toll, repeatedly overruling state health officials over a span of at least five months. In January, New York’s attorney general said the administration had undercounted nursing home deaths by several thousand. Mr. Cuomo later acknowledged as much, blaming the lower figure on fears that the Trump administration would use the data as a political weapon.
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, the host of Cuomo Prime Time, had been subject to a rule that CNN put in place in 2013 that prevented him from interviewing or covering his brother Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo issued an order on March 25, 2020 that all New York State nursing homes must accept residents that are medically stable. The order further stated that "o resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19".
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Prior to the report released by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Andrew Cuomo had received the International Emmy Founders Award from the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his COVID-19 press briefings. On August 24, 2021, the Academy revoked his award, due to sexual harassment allegations, however, and not due to the nursing home scandal. In November 2021, a report by the New York State Assembly found that Cuomo's executive chamber had "substantially revised" the report to exclude deaths of nursing home residents at hospitals in order to boost Cuomo's reputation. The Health Department report revived questions about how New York was counting such deaths. At the time, the state’s tally only included residents who had died inside a nursing home; it excluded those who died at a hospital or other facility.
Governor Andrew Cuomo and his staff were in the spotlight after their alleged cover-up of nursing home deaths. Did You KnowNew York nursing home residents began to receive their vaccines in December 2020. The Attorney General’s report suggested that a failure to properly test both residents and staff members contributed to increased rates of COVID-19. The governor’s office said the number of deaths that occurred outside homes was omitted because the Health Department “could not confirm it had been adequately verified.” A department spokesman added that the figures had not been ready in time to be included in the report. Throughout the summer and fall, Mr. Cuomo dismissed the criticism by citing to the Health Department report.
He launched daily COVID-19 press briefings which saw early acclaim, but often announced new pandemic policy and then required health officials "match their health guidance to the announcements." The F.B.I. has since been looking at information that New York submitted last year to the Justice Department, which had asked for data on Covid-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes, according to people familiar with the investigation. Behind the scenes, some of Mr. Cuomo’s advisers were battling top state health officials over the nursing home death count in the Health Department report, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Times. “As the number of out-of-facility deaths were reported last January this is not news, however what is peculiar is the Comptroller’s release of this audit now – but no one has ever accused him of being above politics,” Azzopardi told CNN in a statement. New York leads the country in the number of Covid-19 deaths with 43,734, according to the latest NBC News tally, most of which occurred in the early days of the pandemic, when public health officials were trying figure out how the disease was spreading. “As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,” James said in a statement.
DOH does not disagree that the number of people transferred from a nursing home to a hospital is an important data point, and is in the midst of auditing this data from nursing homes. As the OAG report states, reporting from nursing homes is inconsistent and often inaccurate. The New York State Office of the Attorney General report is clear that there was no undercount of the total death toll from this once-in-a-century pandemic. The OAG affirms that the total number of deaths in hospitals and nursing homes is full and accurate. New York State Department of Health has always publicly reported the number of fatalities within hospitals irrespective of the residence of the patient, and separately reported the number of fatalities within nursing home facilities and has been clear about the nature of that reporting. Indeed, the OAG acknowledges in a footnote on page 71 that DOH was always clear that the data on its website pertains to in-facility fatalities and does not include deaths outside of a facility.
On a private conference call in February, Melissa DeRosa, a top aide to Mr. Cuomo, told Democratic lawmakers that the state had withheld the data because it feared an investigation by the Trump administration. Lawmakers again demanded answers about the delay in releasing the figures, with many theorizing that the administration had deliberately stalled to avoid blame for the higher toll. Mr. Cuomo’s critics said the order had fueled the spread of the virus in nursing homes. Numerous Democratic lawmakers, including most of the state’s congressional delegation, have called for him to resign.
Gov. Cuomo, Commissioner Zucker, and any member of the administration who had a hand in this callous decision must be held accountable. On March 19, 2021, The FBI reported that an investigation was underway on Governor Andrew Cuomo for improperly using the power of his office to shield nursing home executive political donors from COVID-19 lawsuits. Following the report released by New York Attorney General Letitia James, bipartisan criticism emerged toward Andrew Cuomo and his handling of the pandemic. The same vaccination rates have not been reached among nursing home staff members, with 60% having been vaccinated across the state as of April 2021. Though the controversies surrounding Cuomo’s actions have made things seem grim, there has been some positive COVID-19 news for New York nursing homes.
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