Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s orders sent more than 6,300 coronavirus patients to nursing homes at the height of the pandemic, new numbers from state officials show.
Thousands of elderly coronavirus patients died after Cuomo issued an order March 25 mandating assisted-living facilities admit coronavirus patients, and state officials are now reporting that the number of admitted carriers is even higher than previous estimates.
”The data shows that the nursing home residents got COVID from the staff, and presumably, also from those who visited them. Unfortunately, we did not understand the disease early on, we did not realize how widespread it was within our community, and therefore, it was able to be introduced into a vulnerable population,” New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said in a press release. (Cuomo Passes The Buck–‘Obligation Is On The Nursing Home’ To Refuse His Order To Take COVID Cases)
“As best as we could, using the tools that we have, we looked to determine the relationships between timelines and outcomes, between infectivity and symptomatology, between onset of illness and death. We looked at the facts,” Zucker said.
“We’ve said from the start that protecting our most vulnerable populations including people in nursing homes is our top priority,” New York State Department of Health spokesman Jeffrey Hammond told DCNF.
“Yesterday, the Department of Health released the results of an in-depth analysis of nursing home data that found COVID-19 fatalities in nursing homes were related to infected nursing home staff,” Hammond said.
More than 20,000 nursing home staffers were infected in March and April, the Associated Press reported.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference at LaGuardia Airport’s new Terminal B, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., June 10, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Cuomo retracted the order May 10 after he was criticized for causing New York’s high death rate in nursing homes. Cuomo has repeatedly blamed the federal government and President Donald Trump for the death rate in the nursing homes.
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