Brooklyn Nursing Home Tops NY's Coronavirus Death List

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — The new coronavirus is exacting a steep toll on New York's nursing home residents — and no place more so than inside a sleepy, brick-laden Brooklyn facility.

Cobble Hill Health Center had 55 residents die from coronavirus complications, according to newly-released data on nursing home deaths.

That's the most reported coronavirus deaths at any nursing home in the state.

Officials at Cobble Hill Health Center didn't return requests for comment. Its website states the facility stopped most visitations and other steps to prevent the coronavirus' spread.

"I can’t over emphasize how fluid this situation is," wrote CEO Danny Tuchman. "Our leadership team is working around the clock to ensure we are implementing all CDC and DOH recommendations to keep everyone safe."

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The state released the nursing home fatality list after reports of bodies stacked in nursing homes. It also may be incomplete — homes had until Thursday to respond to a state survey.

The list as it stands does not include nursing homes with fewer than five deaths.

There are nine Brooklyn nursing homes on the list:

• Downtown Brooklyn Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 6 deaths
• Haym Solomon Home for the Aged, 6 deaths
• Oxford Nursing Home, 7 deaths
• Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, 7 deaths
• Sea Crest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 8 deaths
• Shore View Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 14 deaths
• Dr Susan Smith Mckinney Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 17 deaths
• Bensonhurst Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, 34 deaths
• Cobble Hill Health Center, Inc., 55 deaths

It's not the first time conditions at Brooklyn nursing homes amid the coronavirus pandemic have attracted attention.

A whistleblower on Tuesday detailed how residents at a Crown Heights/Flatbush-area nursing home were locked inside their rooms. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who jointly hosted the whistleblower's teleconference, called for an investigation into nursing home conditions during the outbreak.

"The virus does not discriminate but policies and practices and procedures in this city and state and country continue to discriminate in those communities that are poor and of color," Adams said. "Nothing we believe really personifies that more than what is happening in nursing homes."

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