New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has defended sending more than 4,300 patients confirmed or suspected of having coronavirus from hospitals t...
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has defended sending more than 4,300 patients confirmed or suspected of having coronavirus from hospitals to nursing homes, arguing it was White House guidance.
The governor hit out at the criticism during his Saturday press briefing, placing the blame with President Donald Trump by saying 'don't criticize the state for following the president's policy'.
Cuomo has come under fire since it was revealed on Thursday that the 4,300 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to New York's already vulnerable nursing homes.
In total, there have been more than 5,800 nursing and adult care facility deaths in the state.
He was pushed to comment on the policy during his Saturday briefing and said that 'New York followed the president's agency's guidance'.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a press briefing on Saturday 'don't criticize the state for following the president policy' after he was criticized for sending patients confirmed or suspected of having coronavirus from hospitals to nursing homes under state guidelines
It was revealed Friday that 4,300 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to New York's already vulnerable nursing homes under the state's guidelines. Pictured EMTs wheel a man out of the Cobble Hill Health Center nursing home in Brooklyn, New York.
The state directive, which said nursing homes could not refuse to accept patients from hospitals who had been diagnosed with COVID-19, was issued on March 25.
It was ultimately scrapped amid widespread criticism that it was accelerating the nation's deadliest outbreak as patients went into the homes and infected more residents, ultimately leading to more than 5,800 nursing and adult care facility deaths in New York.
Cuomo has previously denied that the directive contributed to any of the deaths.
‘I have no political agenda, I have no political aspirations, there’s no politics here,’ Cuomo said Saturday when asked about the policy.
‘I can say that but we’re still in an election year and people are playing politics and this is a hyper partisan environment to the extent that people want to politicize this issue and Republicans are saying "well, New York did this".
‘New York followed the president agency’s guidance. That depoliticizes it,' he added.
‘What New York did was follow what the Republican administration said to do. That’s not my attempt to politicize it, it’s my attempt to depoliticize it.
Cuomo also turned to his top aide Melissa DeRosa, who reiterated that the state had only followed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control. 'So don’t criticize the state for following the president’s policy.'
'The policy that the New York Department of Health put out was directly in line with the March 13 directive put out by the CDC and CMS that read, and I quote “Nursing Homes should admit any patients from hospitals where COVID is present”. Not could, should,' De Rosa said.
‘The is President Trump’s CMS and CDC.
Gov. Cuomo has come under fire since it was revealed that the 4,300 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to New York's already vulnerable nursing homes. Pictured medical workers attend to a patient outside Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in early May
'So I know that there has been a lot of discussion on this topic, there were over a dozen states that did the exact same thing who were concerned about hospital capacity,' she added.
Cuomo's response to the backlash over the nursing home admissions came after a Fox News senior meteorologist revealed she blames the New York governor for her parents-in-law dying of COVID-19 in a nursing home.
Janice Dean told Fox News on Thursday that she felt compelled to speak out after the governor appeared on CNN, where Chris Cuomo teased his older sibling for having a large nose.
Her father-in-law, Michael, an Air Force veteran and former New York City firefighter, was placed in a nursing home after it became apparent he was suffering from dementia.Dean said that her mother- and father-in-law, Michael and Dolores Newman, both died of COVID-19 after they were exposed to the virus in nursing homes.
Dean said that she and her husband were notified a week before Michael’s death that the nursing home was moving him to another floor.
Janice Dean (right), a Fox News senior meteorologist, told Tucker Carlson (left) on Thursday that she believes New York State's requirement that nursing homes admit recovering COVID-19 patients led to the deaths of her in-laws and criticized Governor Andrew Cuomo
Dean said that Michael and Delores Newman both died of COVID-19 just two weeks apart. She believes they may have been exposed to the virus while they were in nursing homes in New York State and has blamed Gov. Cuomo for her parent-in-laws deaths
‘I believe that floor was used for recovering COVID patients,’ Dean said. ‘I can’t prove that. We can’t get any confirmation on any of this.’
Cuomo, a Democrat, on May 10 reversed the directive, which had been intended to help free up hospital beds for the sickest patients as cases surged.
But he continued to defend it this week, saying he didn’t believe it contributed to the more than 5,800 nursing and adult care facility deaths in New York - more than in any other state - and that homes should have spoken up if it was a problem.
Governor Cuomo also announced Saturday that the Mid Hudson and Long Island regions are getting closer to meeting all the criteria that will allow them to begin phase one of reopening but no mention was made of when New York City could expect the same.
New York City is still only meeting four out of the seven criteria that need to be met in order to begin phase one of reopening. It still needs to have more hospital and ICU beds available
Gov. Cuomo said the Mid-Hudson region could open this week once more contract tracers are trained over the Memorial Day weekend. It has currently met six of the requirements
Mid-Hudson is hitting the criteria allowing it to open Tuesday and Long Island potentially following suit by Wednesday.
New York City is to remain closed, however, as it does not yet have an acceptable percentage of hospital beds or ICU beds available.
The three areas holding New York City back from reopening are the lack of free hospital beds and contact tracers which have to be hired by the local government
The number of hospital beds available is lagging at 28 percent, just below the 30 percent threshold needed.
The governor announced that there were 84 new deaths from coronavirus in the state on Friday, a decline that continues to be 'good news'.
This was the first time New York state's daily death toll dipped below 100 since March 23.
Gov. Cuomo said on Saturday that at the height of the pandemic, he had been aiming to reach below 100 on the advice of a medical professional.
Seventy of those deaths were in New York City where the official death toll is now 16,403. There are also a further 4,735 deaths related to coronavirus.
Case in New York City rose on Friday by 716 to 194,667.
Friday was the first time New York state's daily death toll dipped below 100 since March 23
Coronavirus hospitalizations are also continuing to decrease in New York state
Hospitalizations and new cases arriving into hospital emergency rooms are also continuing to decrease but the governor warned that residents must remain vigilant over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
New cases in New York state rose by 1,772 on Friday to a total of 356,926.
The death toll stands at 23,285.
Cuomo was asked about the ability to prevent visitors from other states with worsening outbreaks from traveling to New York but said that he didn't think it was legally possible.
The governor fired off at being unable to prevent visitors arriving to New York from Europe when the outbreak first began because they state was not told that the virus had already spread from China but added that the state would not have had the capacity to implement a ban.
'I don’t know if legally one state can bar other states from entrance and I don’t think it is good policy, Cuomo said 'and I know when they shoe was on the other foot, I thought it was wrong then and I think it is wrong now.'
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