Cuomo Defends Record On Nursing Home Coronavirus Deaths

NEW YORK CITY — A pugnacious and only-partially contrite Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to dig himself out of a growing controversy over his handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo devoted 30 minutes during his Friday briefing to a sweeping defense of his administration and a rebuttal against opponents he said caused unnecessary grief for families.

He also took responsibility for creating a "void" over nursing home deaths from COVID-19 that got filled with, in his telling, conspiracy theories, politics and rumors.

"People wanted information, we did not produce public information fast enough," he said.

The public information in question was how many nursing home residents died of COVID-19 — a number only recently revealed to be more than 13,000.

Cuomo, as he has before, denied covering up deaths. He said every nursing home resident has been included in the state's total deaths from COVID-19 — an assertion that appears to be true but sidesteps concerns the tally didn't properly categorize deaths of nursing home residents.

The controversy had long-simmered but boiled over after Cuomo's top aide Melissa DeRosa told lawmakers the state withheld some numbers from them. Cuomo repeated the state did so to fulfill a federal Department of Justice request for the figures.

"We paused the state request and we told them that we paused the state request,” he said.

The request itself was part of an effort by the Trump administration to turn nursing home deaths in Democratic states into a political issue, Cuomo said. Critics argued those deaths in New York can be tied to a March 25 order telling nursing homes to take COVID-positive residents if they wer able.

Howard Zucker, the state's health commissioner, said based on the facts at the time that it was the right decision. Hospitals statewide were nearing capacity and officials reasoned that nursing home residents could return to their facilities once they recovered, he said.

That was the CDC guidance at the time, he said, noting that asymptomatic spread wasn't recognized then as well. Nursing homes also had a legal obligation to not take patients they couldn't care for or properly isolate, he said.

"We simply said you cannot deny admission based on status," he said. "We never said you must accept, we said you couldn't deny."

Zucker said data shows COVID-19 came into nursing homes inadvertently through staff. He said 98 percent of nursing homes that took COVID-19 patients already had coronavirus cases within their walls.

"We made the right public health decision at the time and faced with the same facts we would make the same decisions again," he said.