A new report released by the New York attorney general suggests that the Cuomo administration has been undercounting the number of nursing home deaths related to COVID-19.
The report states that preliminary data based on an investigation of 62 nursing homes “suggests that COVID-19 resident deaths associated with nursing homes in New York state appear to be undercounted by [the Department of Health] by approximately 50 percent.”
The New York Department of Health has been accused of undercounting the number of COVID-19 nursing home deaths because the DOH only counted deaths that occurred in nursing homes and excluded the deaths of residents who were transferred to a hospital.
According to the attorney general report, “Preliminary data obtained by [the Office of Attorney General] suggests that many nursing home residents died from Covid-19 in hospitals after being transferred from their nursing homes, which is not reflected in DOH published total nursing home death data.”
Of the 62 nursing homes examined by the attorney general, 55 nursing homes had discrepancies in their data. The Department of Health reported 1,229 COVID-19 deaths related to those facilities, but the attorney general found 1,914, a difference of 55%.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also faced stiff criticism for his handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic, after his office issued an executive order in March 2020 requiring nursing homes to accept residents who had been discharged from the hospital after being hospitalized for COVID-19.
Critics contend this put other nursing home residents at risk for the virus. The Department of Health has pushed back on this, releasing a report in July claiming that residents sent back to nursing homes were no longer contagious.
