A Staten Island nursing home administrator said in an interview airing Thursday that Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s order to move COVID-19 infected patients into nursing homes left him “petrified.”
Michael Kraus told Fox News in an interview that he and other state officials opposed the directive but that Cuomo overruled and “shot down” their objections.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a press conference before the opening of a mass COVID-19 vaccination site in the Queens borough of New York, on Feb. 24, 2021. – The site run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), along with another in Brooklyn, gives priority to local residents in an effort to equitably distribute the vaccine. (Photo by Seth Wenig / POOL / AFP) (Photo by SETH WENIG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“Many facilities vocalized it,” Kraus told the network. “They were petrified, but they were more petrified of the Department of Health … once it [my concern] was shot down, I never spoke [about it] again.” (RELATED: ‘Such Arrogance’: Democratic NYC Councillor Says Gov. Cuomo Has Done Nothing ‘Except Lie To People’)
The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) reported May 15, 2020, that New York had hidden the amount of people who had died of coronavirus in reports that concerned nursing home deaths. The New York State Department of Health admitted the omission in a statement to the DCNF.
Cuomo’s advisers altered a report of nursing home deaths and those deaths likely exceeded 15,000 people, The Wall Street Journal reported. The New York Times also reported the same after conducting interviews and reviewing documents. (RELATED: Janice Dean Wonders If Andrew Cuomo’s Emmy Will Include ‘In Memoriam’ Section For Nursing Homes)
Cuomo is facing mounting opposition from both Democrats and Republicans in the New York state assembly who want to impeach the governor or force him to resign.
The governor also remains the focus of a growing sexual harassment scandal with his sixth accuser saying Cuomo groped her.