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Andrew Cuomo, Democratic Governor of besieged New York City, admitted on Monday that he should have moved earlier to release relevant data relating to COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes amid growing criticism of the handling of the scandal by its administration.
At his first press conference since reports revealed his office underreported or withheld critical information about deaths in nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic, Cuomo said all relevant information had been “fully, publicly and accurately reported”. When asked if he felt the need to apologize, the New York governor said his team’s inability to publicly address concerns created a “vacuum” that allowed “theories to spread.” of the conspiracy ”.
“We made a mistake in creating the vacuum,” Cuomo said. “We made a mistake in creating the vacuum when we didn’t provide information, it allowed journalists, cynics, politicians to fill a void.”
CUOMO HELP TELLS NY DEMOCRAT ADMINISTRATION HIDDEN CARE HOMES DATA TO KEEP FROM TRUMP DOJ: REPORT
Cuomo has been called on to resign since The Associated Press reported his administration vastly underestimated the number of recovering COVID-19 patients who have been referred to nursing homes for recovery under a controversial ordinance he implemented last March. The Associated Press found that nearly 15,000 long-term care patients have died from COVID-19 in nursing homes, up from around 8,500 previously disclosed deaths.
Criticism escalated after Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa admitted on a private call that the administration withheld data requested by New York state legislatures because they feared they are not “used against us” by the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump.
DeRosa later clarified that she “was explaining that when we received the DOJ’s investigation, we were to temporarily cancel the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first.”
“We informed the houses at the time,” Cuomo’s aide said in a statement. “We were complete and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then we had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and the vaccine rollout.”
The revelations about the withheld data sparked a bipartisan outcry, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, among local lawmakers who called on Cuomo to be stripped of his emergency powers. Lawmakers granted Cuomo the power to enact ordinances and change laws without legislative approval at the start of the pandemic last March.
Asked about willingness to remove his emergency powers, Cuomo noted that the state legislature could override any of his executive actions with a vote, but had not done so since the start of the pandemic. .
Cuomo argued that a “toxic political environment” has contributed to the backlash against his administration in recent days. The governor said his team had “suspended” a request for data from the state in order to focus on meeting the Justice Department’s request.
The governor said his team informed staff at the New York State Assembly and Senate that their data request was on hold until the DOJ’s request was fulfilled last August.
“We made the DOJ priority. We told the assembly that, we told the Senate and that’s what we did. We were also dealing with a pandemic,” Cuomo said.
New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, Democrat, was among lawmakers who rebuffed the claim.
“No, @NYGovCuomo, you didn’t tell * the whole * Senate or Assembly that there was a DOJ investigation, as a reason you weren’t sharing nursing home numbers.” , Biaggi said in a statement. “I discovered a DOJ investigation with the rest of NY in the @nypost story Thursday night.”
New York State Democratic Senator Gustavo Rivera also rejected Cuomo’s claim.
Cuomo also addressed the backlash against his March 25 order calling on nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients. The governor said the memo was based on federal guidelines and said patients were only referred to facilities that had accepted and recognized they were equipped to accept them.
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The Democrat added that of the 365 nursing homes that received a COVID_19 patient recovering from a hospital, 98% of facilities had already reported exposure to COVID-19 before the patient returned to school. Cuomo said nursing home staff, and not returning patients, likely introduced the virus into the facilities.
Cuomo said his team “did all they could” to protect nursing home patients amid an unprecedented public health crisis.
“The last thing we wanted to do, the last thing I wanted to do, was make a terrible situation worse,” he added.
This story has been updated.
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