New York is reporting 1,700 more COVID-19 related deaths at nursing homes that hadn’t been disclosed before. Health officials say the increase is due to the addition of “presumed” as well “confirmed” deaths due to coronavirus.
The jump comes as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo comes under criticism for requiring that nursing homes admit patients with the coronavirus. Critics say infected patients should never have been transferred to such vulnerable facilities. Cuomo says both his office and the state attorney general are investigating what could have been done differently with nursing homes. He adds that all death stats should be taken with a grain of salt, especially “at-home deaths.”
“How do you confirm all those deaths as attributed to coronavirus? So I would caveat with all of these. I think they are going to change over time.”
Official state counts now include more than 4,800 deaths at adult care facilities, about a quarter of the state’s overall death toll from COVID-19.
Do you have questions you’d like WSHU to answer in local coverage of the coronavirus? Let us know via this survey.
