Democrat-controlled New York has reportedly admitted to knowingly undercounting the number of deaths suffered in nursing homes from the coronavirus after the facilities were devastated by Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo’s policy that forced them to take patients who were infected with the virus.
The New York State Department of Health told the Daily Caller News Foundation that until late-April, it was disclosing the deaths of coronavirus patients from nursing home facilities regardless of whether the patient died in the nursing home or a hospital.
The DCNF reported:
But the department made a subtle change to its disclosures beginning around May 3, according to web archives. The NYSDOH told the DCNF its disclosure now only reports coronavirus deaths for long-term care patients that died while physically present at their facility. …
In other words, New York’s nursing home and adult care facility coronavirus deaths tracker omits any individuals who contracted coronavirus while living at a long-term care facility but died in a hospital.
The news comes as nearly 5,500 people have died in New York’s nursing homes, which experts have said was a result of Cuomo’s policy.
“Of the nine states with the largest coronavirus outbreaks at long-term care facilities, according to a New York Times tracker, New York is the only state that omits the deaths of residents who died at hospitals from its reporting,” the DCNF added. “New York ceased reporting deaths of long-term care residents who died in hospitals the same day it unveiled 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths that occurred on the grounds of long-term care facilities from residents presumed to have coronavirus.”
Cuomo has faced increasing criticism over how his state handled the coronavirus outbreak as new reports show how New York was responsible for seeding most of the outbreaks across the country.
Others have suggested that the reported cover-up of the number of deaths in the nursing homes is even greater than what has been reported.
“I’ve gotten phone calls from children of people at facilities who were told affirmatively that there were no deaths at the facility, and it just wasn’t true,” John Dalli, a Brooklyn-based attorney who specializes in elder abuse, told a local publication. “[Reporting] is not being done with these COVID deaths. They’re just not doing it.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has called for an investigation into Cuomo’s disastrous handling of the pandemic.
“Today I joined my @NewYorkGOP colleagues in the House to call for a federal investigation of Cuomo’s failed nursing home policies,” Stefanik said in a tweet. “NOW they admit they unethically changed the way they report nursing home deaths. An INEXCUSABLE tragedy for NY – NEED ANSWERS.”
Congressional candidate and New York Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis also called for a criminal investigation into Cuomo’s nursing home scandal.
“On March 24th, Gov. Cuomo said, ‘My mother is not expendable, your mother is not expendable’ and yet the very next day he signed an executive order mandating nursing homes – where our most vulnerable mothers and our most vulnerable fathers reside – to accept COVID positive patients,” Malliotakis stated. “There are 5,000 residents of nursing homes or patients that have been put into nursing homes that have died, which account for 25 percent of the deaths in the state of New York and 30 percent of the deaths in the community that I represent.”
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