Cuomo comes clean: NY admits COVID nursing home deaths are 43% percent HIGHER than previously stated at nearly 13,000 - HOURS after NY AG accused state of undercutting number by 50%
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration has admitted that the number of deaths in the state's nursing homes is 43% higher than previously announced, in a bombshell report just hours after the state's Attorney General said numbers had been undercounted by 50%.
State health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker released figures Thursday that put the death tally at both nursing homes and hospitals at 12,743 as of January 19 - where previously the official count had been 8,914.
Zucker said provisional data showed 3,829 nursing home residents died from Covid-19 after being sent to hospitals. The number has not been reported by the state until now.
Out of the 8,914 nursing home deaths previously reported, 5,957 were confirmed cases of Covid-19 and with a further 2,957 presumed cases.
The figures came hours after New York Attorney General Letitia James said the state had undercounted nursing home deaths from Covid-19 by 50%, based on information obtained across 62 nursing homes.
But Zucker insists that James was wrong to say that the numbers were undercounted, insisting: '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 change in nursing home death numbers does not change the total Covid-19 death count for New York state - which now stands at 34,742 - as the hospital deaths were included in the state's overall total.
There are now calls by state Republicans for Zucker's resignation over the fiasco.
Zucker's announcement came after months of officials fending off request for accurate information on nursing home deaths.
State officials continued to deny requests, claiming the data was unreliable.
A report by the New York Attorney General Letitia James has revealed the state undercounted COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50%. The state and Gov. Cuomo has put the number at 8,500. By James' number, it's closer to 13,000
The data, from New York State Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker came after months of fending off request for such information. There are now calls by some Republicans for Zucker's resignation over the fiasco
'The Department of Health has consistently found numerous inaccuracies when examining unverified data, and as a result, months ago DOH began an audit of fatality numbers reported by nursing homes to ensure public release of these statistics were accurate,' Zucker said in a statement on Thursday.
But it does reveal a more intricate picture as to how deadly the virus had been in nursing homes.
In March, an edict from Cuomo meant nursing homes were forced to take positive COVID patients after they were released from hospital.
The order, which was later revoked, saw more than 6,000 COVID positive patients heading back into nursing homes between March and May.
It has been blamed for increasing the death count at nursing homes, which have been devastated by the pandemic.
Until now, the true impact of the virus on such facilities was being grossly underestimated.
Cuomo dodged questions about the revelations on Thursday, and did not schedule a press briefing as he does every other day.
The revelation saw Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik demand that James and the U.S. Justice Department subpoena Cuomo's administration for documentation and communications regarding his handling of the pandemic.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik demand that James and the U.S. Justice Department subpoena Cuomo's administration for documentation and communications regarding his handling of the pandemic
The congresswoman said the revelations detailed in the report are indicative of a 'massive corruption and coverup scandal at the highest level of New York State Government, implicating the Governor, Secretary of the Governor, the New York State Health Commissioner, and the Governor's staff.'
'The March edict that the governor put in place forced nursing homes to take positive COVID patients . . . put at risk our most vulnerable constituents in New York State,' Stefanik told Fox News on Thursday night.
'There have been advocates who have lost loved one who have been asking for answers, accountability and transparency and at every turn the governor and his staff have smeared those individuals,' she continued. 'Finally today is a first step towards justice.'
Stefanik also asked for both Democrats and Republicans to issue subpoenas against Cuomo, state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, and his senior staff.
'They knew this number and yet they refused to be transparent with New Yorkers but what was most heartless is they weren't transparent with those who have lost loved ones,' she said.
'The March edict that the governor put in place forced nursing homes to take positive COVID patients . . . put at risk our most vulnerable constituents in New York State,' Rep Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told Fox News on Thursday night
In her report, James said that the New York State Health Department only ever counted people who physically died in nursing homes, rather than people who contracted the disease in nursing homes but then died in hospital too.
The report states that a March directive that nursing homes had to accept COVID-19 positive patients 'may' have contributed to a higher number of infection, but that it is impossible to directly attribute it to him.
James' office is focusing on whether the homes themselves are to blame for not containing the spread once the patients were already admitted.
Twenty are now facing investigation from her office. They are not named in the report, which also say that understaffed facilities had higher COVID death rates.
'The word 'undercount' implies there are more total fatalities than have been reported; this is factually wrong,' Dr. Howard Zucker said.
Between March and May - when Cuomo reversed the directive after widespread criticism - 6,326 COVID-positive residents were admitted to 310 nursing homes.
Of the approximately 600 public nursing homes in New York, at least 323 homes had never had any infections until afterward the order but there is no data on which accepted COVID-19 patients and which didn't.
People who caught COVID in nursing homes were then sent to hospitals where they later died (file photo)
The report cites data from 62 nursing homes across New York. The state only ever relayed the number of people who died physically in nursing homes and not nursing home residents who died in hospital which inflates the death toll dramatically
James does not, in her report, criticize Cuomo personally and does not directly attribute the high deaths to it.
All the report says is that the decision 'may' have contributed to it.
'While additional data and analysis would be required to ascertain the effect of such admissions in individual facilities, these admissions may have contributed to increased risk of nursing home resident infection, and subsequent fatalities (whether due to actual transmission of infection from new residents to incumbent residents, or due to the facilities' poor self-assessment during the admission process that was followed by failure to provide appropriate care to that patient or other residents.)' the report reads.
James' office is now investigating 20 nursing homes which may not have met safety and cleanliness requirements.
Cuomo's decision to send thousands of COVID-19 patients back into nursing homes has been widely blamed for the high number of deaths among elderly people in New York.
In May, the AP published the first report that New York was undercounting nursing home deaths and the AG's office launched an investigation.
Every other state has counted both.
Cuomo has resisted criticism for the directive and he has never apologized for it.
The report points out that while widely criticized, the March 25 directive was in line with the federal guidance that had been given.
The point of the directive, from the state's view, was to ensure nursing homes were up to scratch.
But nursing homes and the families of their residents angrily demanded to know why COVID-19 positive patients were being admitted in the first place, especially when healthy visitors were not allowed.
'Many nursing home industry and other commentators have criticized DOH's March 25 guidance as a directive that nursing homes had to accept COVID-19 patients who were infectious.
'At the same time, the March 25 guidance was consistent with the CMS guidance on March 4 that said nursing homes should accept residents they would have normally admitted, even if from a hospital with COVID-19, and that patients from hospitals can be transferred to nursing homes if the nursing homes have the ability to adhere to infection prevention and control recommendations,' the report reads.
At the time, recovered nursing home patients were taking up much needed hospital beds because they were delays in them receiving testing results back and nursing homes were not accepting anyone from the hospital unless they'd been given a negative COVID test.
New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) wearing personal protective equipment lift a man after moving him from a nursing home into an ambulance on April 16, 2020
The hospital system in New York never collapsed. There were individual hospitals that became overwhelmed but the system overall, held.
The field hospitals set up by Cuomo at the USNS Comfort and Javits Center were never used to their full capacity and were not set up until after the March 25 directive.
The New York State Health Commissioner said the report was not damning, and 'confirmed' that they'd always counted all of deaths just not as nursing home fatalities.
'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.'
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