The number of deaths in New York due to coronavirus is steadily going down, with 230 on Monday, four more than reported on Sunday. But New York State is now adding 1,700 more deaths at nursing homes in the past few weeks that are believed to be from the from the coronavirus.
The new numbers from the state health department, first reported by the Associated Press, now include deaths presumed to be from the coronavirus, along with confirmed deaths. It brings the total to 4,813 people passing away at nursing homes from Covid-19 since March 1.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, at his daily briefing, says the state is now asking for both categories from nursing homes, but he says he expects even those numbers to change as health officials try to further verify the cause of the presumed deaths.
“I would take all of these numbers now with a grain of salt,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo says nursing homes were always going to be “a target” in a pandemic that more severely attacks the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
Cuomo aide Jim Malatras says the state already took a number of “aggressive” steps to try to protect the residents, including a now two-month-long ban on visitors, and requiring that staff wear personal protective gear like masks and gloves, and have their temperatures taken at the beginning of their shifts.
Covid-19 positive patients are separated from the rest of the nursing home residents. New York has continued a controversial practice of requiring that nursing homes readmit Covid-positive residents who had to be hospitalized back into their facilities. Health Commissioner Doctor Howard Zucker has argued that the nursing homes are the residents’ homes, and they can’t be barred from returning to them.
The state recently changed a rule that allowed nursing home workers who tested positive for the virus but were asymptomatic to continue to report to work. The CDC still permits the practice.
The state’s Attorney General, Tish James, is investigating reports from families who say the nursing homes kept them in the dark about the condition of their Covid-positive relatives, and in some cases, took days to notify them of the residents’ deaths.
The news of the previously unreported deaths angered state Assemblyman Ron Kim, the sponsor of a bill to strengthen protections for nursing home residents during a pandemic. Kim, in a statement, said that Cuomo and his health department “completely failed at protecting our most vulnerable New Yorkers,” and he said “heads should role” and that the governor and Commissioner Zucker should apologize for the undercounting in recent weeks.
Cuomo says if there is anything his administration can learn from how the nursing homes have been handled during the pandemic, they will make changes going forward, and dealing with the expected second wave of the virus later this year.
The governor also called for more consideration for the human cost of reopening the country back up too quickly. The governor on Monday laid out a careful plan for a gradual reopening of the state, which includes four phases of business reopenings, and many rules on social distancing and personal protective gear.
The governor compared it to the faster reopenings now taking place in 30 other states. The faster track to ending shutdowns in many states led a key coronavirus forecaster used by the White House to double the rate of deaths predicted from the virus in the U.S. to 134,000.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, partly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in mid-April predicted 60,000 total deaths.
The governor says the discussion is really about how much a human life is worth, compared to potential economic gain.
“That’s the real discussion that no one is admitting openly or freely,” Cuomo said. “A human life is priceless. Period.”
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