Letitia James
ALBANY – New York Attorney General Letitia James released a searing report Thursday that found the New York State Department of Health under-reported nursing home deaths related to the coronavirus by as much as 50 percent.
The report follows a months-long investigation by the attorney general’s office’s into allegations of patient neglect and other conduct that jeopardized the health and safety of residents and employees, including information that nursing homes failed to properly isolate residents who tested positive for COVID-19 and demanded sick employees continue to work or face retaliation or termination.
The report also found that New York’s guidance from March requiring admission of COVID-19 patients into nursing homes may have increased the risk of others contracting the virus, a notion that a state-commissioned, internal report dismissed as a possibility.
Beyond the health department’s under-counting of deaths, the investigation also found nursing homes’ lack of compliance with infection-control protocols put residents at risk, and facilities that had lower pre-pandemic staffing ratings had higher COVID-19 fatality rates.
In response, the minority leader of the state senate called for the resignation of state health commission Howard Zucker. Sen. George Borrello also supported the resignation, but also said that it would absolve Cuomo of any wrongdoing and called on the state legislature to seek accountability from the governor.
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