Cuomo Issues Strict New Coronavirus Guidelines For Nursing Homes

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo vividly evoked images of predator and prey as he laid down strict new guidelines for nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

"This is where this virus feeds," he said Sunday.

And Cuomo made clear he wanted to starve the coronavirus virus of its nursing home feeding grounds — a measure some critics have argued should have happened much earlier as vulnerable seniors, especially in New York City, have been felled by the virus.

State numbers updated Saturday show 5,244 confirmed and presumed COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes.

Cuomo said New York's nursing home death rate is the 34th highest among the states. It's still too high, so nursing homes must follow stricter guidelines or else lose their licenses, he said.

"The rule is very simple: if a nursing home cannot provide care for a person, and provide the appropriate level of care, for any reason they must transfer the person out of the facility," he said.

Whatever the reason care may fall short — whether not enough staff, personal protective equipment shortfalls, no isolation space — nursing homes must transfer patients, Cuomo said.

All nursing home staff now must take coronavirus diagnostic tests twice a week, he said. Hospitals, in addition, cannot discharge patients to nursing homes unless patients test negative for COVID-19, he said.

Cuomo reminded nursing home operators that the state has alternative facilities for nursing home patients, both coronavirus-positive and not.

"We created 40,000 hospital beds because we had to," he said.

But it appears at least one nursing home couldn't get patients into such facilities in the past. Cobble Hill Health Center — once the facility with the most coronavirus deaths — pleaded with state officials to transfer patients to overflow facilities on the U.S. Naval hospital ship Comfort and the Javits Center.

Those pleas were rejected as the facilities, which never reached full capacity, were intended only for hospital patients, according to a New York Post report.

Parker Jewish Institute nursing home on the border of Queens and Nassau now leads the state with 75 deaths. Families of residents told Patch there are too few protective measures, not enough health care workers and little-to-no communication about what's conditions inside. The facility disputed those claims.

Cuomo left nursing homes no wiggle room.

“If any of these procedures are not followed, you will lose your license,” a graphic flashed on the screen during his conference.

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