NEW YORK CITY, NY: During an often-confrontational Assembly subcommittee hearing this week, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was criticized for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic as the virus spread in nursing homes.
Governor Cuomo initially banned nursing homes from refusing to admit patients solely because they had COVID-19 in March 2020. Under that directive, more than 9,000 patients who recovered from the coronavirus were discharged from hospitals to nursing homes, but the directive was later rescinded amid speculation that it had accelerated the spread of the virus.
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York called the directive “deadly.” Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, chairman of the House COVID-19 Subcommittee, said the directive runs counter to federal guidance and its consequences are “dangerous and dire.” Republicans have accused Cuomo of orchestrating a cover-up to hide mistakes that put nursing home residents at risk.
During more than two hours of testimony, Governor Cuomo strongly defended his actions and criticized the Trump administration for failing to provide enough testing and personal protective equipment in the early stages of the pandemic.
The testimony is unlikely to resolve the controversy over nursing home admissions orders, which were issued to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients who are not sick enough to require hospitalization but who need nursing home care for other symptoms and cannot be simply discharged or sent home.
The House committee report did not ask whether patients who were discharged from hospitals still had the virus when they were readmitted to nursing homes, or whether they subsequently transmitted it to other patients.
Some public health experts say most of the people who died in New York nursing homes in the early months of the pandemic likely caught the virus from staff, visiting family members or fellow patients who hadn’t yet been hospitalized.
The death toll from coronavirus among New York long-term care facility residents has reached nearly 15,000, far higher than initially announced.
Cuomo denied the sexual harassment allegations and resigned in August 2021.
Cuomo was widely seen as a reassuring figure in the early months of the pandemic, but his popularity took a hit after it emerged his administration had released incomplete tallies of deaths in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Another state report commissioned by Cuomo’s successor, Gov. Kathy Hokul, and released this summer found that policies on how nursing homes should respond to COVID-19 were “rushed and uncoordinated” but based on the best understanding of the science at the time.
