Table of Content
- Your County’s Risk
- COVID-19 deaths in NY nursing homes were 50 percent higher than claimed: probe
- Nursing Home Death Counts
- ‘Tripledemic’: High levels of COVID-19, RSV, flu may continue for weeks, ‘possibly even months,’ CDC warns
- Thousands of NYC nurses begin vote to authorize strike: 'We were the heroes'
- COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Brings Hope to Nursing Homes
The Attorney General’s report also noted that New York nursing homes were still required to admit patients even if they had been diagnosed with COVID-19 between March and May 2020. But according to documents and interviews, Ms. DeRosa herself was involved in rewriting the Health Department report months before the Justice Department began seeking information about the administration’s nursing home policy. But, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions over the July report who were interviewed by The Times, Dr. Zucker was aware as early as June that officials in his department believed the data was solid enough to include in the report. State auditors highlighted the level of control over the data exercised by Cuomo, members of his staff within the Executive Chamber and the members of the New York State Interagency Task Force, including former State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker.
The report adds a new layer to the criticism Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has faced over the state’s handling of Covid-19 in long-term care facilities. But epidemiologists and academics derided the study for a flawed methodology that sidestepped key questions and relied on selective stats, including the state’s official death toll figures. Additionally, it identifies examples in which nursing home operators reported different information to DOH then to the OAG.
Your County’s Risk
That a late March nursing home admission policy led to thousands of Covid-19 deaths at long-term care facilities, suggesting that coronavirus-related deaths in such facilities were largely driven by community spread from infected staff or visitors. Zucker promised to provide lawmakers the numbers as soon as that doublechecking is complete. The AP has also been denied access to similar nursing home death data despite filing a public records request with the state health department nearly three months ago. Boston University geriatrics expert Thomas Perls said it doesn’t make sense that nursing home resident deaths as a percentage of total deaths in many nearby states are more than triple what was reported in New York. The State Legislature should immediately, as I have been calling for time and time again since July 1, 2020, strip the governor of any and all emergency powers he has exercised for way too long during this pandemic. We should restore our legislative authority and begin to do our jobs in representing the people.
Additionally, the OAG report found no evidence that any nursing home lacked the ability to care for patients admitted from hospitals (Page 37; Page 72, footnote 45). MFCU is led by Director Amy Held and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Paul J. Mahoney. MFCU is a part of the division for criminal justice, which is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice José Maldonado and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.
COVID-19 deaths in NY nursing homes were 50 percent higher than claimed: probe
One of Cuomo’s top aides admitted in February 2021 that the administration delayed the release of nursing home Covid-19 death data, wary of a US Justice Department preliminary inquiry. Cuomo, who was widely lauded in Democratic circles for his leadership in the early days of the pandemic, has since been under significant scrutiny over his administration’s guidance regarding Covid-19 and nursing homes. At the Boropark Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, an additional 41 people died in the hospital on top of 32 at the home. The Sheepshead Nursing & Rehabilitation Center had nine deaths in the home, and 50 outside of it. The total number of nursing home patients who died from COVID-19 is now 13,163 with nearly one-third dying in a hospital.
NEW YORK — Riverdale Nursing Home in the Bronx appears, on paper, to have escaped the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, with an official state count of just four deaths in its 146-bed facility. All of this confirms that many nursing home operators made grave mistakes and were not adequately prepared for this pandemic, and that reforms are needed, which is why we proposed radical reforms to oversight of nursing home facilities in this year's state budget. This is still an ongoing crisis and we will continue deploying every resource possible to ensuring the health and safety of every single New Yorker.
Nursing Home Death Counts
This Cuomo nursing homes policy was enacted in line with federal guidelines to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, once widely celebrated for leading New York out of the coronavirus pandemic’s darkest days, is now embroiled in crisis over how many of the state’s nursing home residents died because of the virus and an apparent effort to hide the true toll. The audit, released Tuesday by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, shows nursing home deaths were undercounted by 4,071 during a 10-month period of the pandemic, from April 2020 to February 2021.
The 62 facilities reported 1,266 in-facility deaths to OAG between March 1 and sometime between April 12 to July 19, depending on when the facility responded. For the same time period, the DOH only publicized 1,229 in-facility deaths, a difference of 3%. As the OAG noted, while this discrepancy may seem low, “closer analysis revealed that some facilities reported the location of the person at the time of death inconsistently.” When removing those facilities, the discrepancy jumped to 18.66%. The true number of COVID-19 deaths from New York nursing homes during the state's initial surge could be 56 percent more than what the state health department is reporting, according to a report released Thursday by the state's attorney general. Ultimately, the OAG's report demonstrates that the recurring problems in nursing homes and by facility operators resulted from a complete abdication by the Trump administration of its duty to manage this pandemic.
NYPost
His mother was never tested for COVID-19, but later died while exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. Between late March and early April, the facility was so understaffed due to staff quarantining, working from home, and preexisting low staffing, that the onsite management of the entire facility was left in the hands of just two nurse supervisors. During the week of April 5, 33 residents died at that facility, 15% of all its residents. √ Government guidance requiring the admission of COVID-19 patients into nursing homes may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities and may have obscured the data available to assess that risk. The Office of the Attorney General is the only law enforcement agency in the state specifically mandated to investigate and prosecute abuse and neglect of residents in nursing homes.
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".
Originally, the Cuomo Administration reported that roughly 9,100 New Yorkers died in nursing homes due to COVID-19. The Attorney General’s report found that over 15,000 died — a significantly higher amount than previously stated. Nursing homes throughout the state of New York failed to act properly in several key areas throughout the pandemic, according to the attorney general’s report. Then, with Mr. Cuomo confronting one of the most serious crises in his time as governor, two former aides accused him of sexual harassment in the workplace. The allegations — and accusations from more women that followed — increased the political pressure further. That pressure grew again with the Assembly’s move to begin an impeachment inquiry.
For weeks, state officials refused to release nursing home numbers, citing concerns about residents' privacy. New York State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt released a statement that read, “The report released today by the attorney general is confirmation for the thousands of families who lost loved ones to COVID-19 in New York nursing homes. For months, Gov. Cuomo and his administration have refused to be transparent or take any responsibility for actions they have taken during this public health crisis – including the deadly March 25, 2020, order to send COVID-positive patients into nursing homes. In January 2021, Attorney General of New York Letitia James released a report finding that Governor Andrew Cuomo had understated the toll of COVID-19-related deaths in state nursing homes by as much as 50 percent.
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