New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker issued a report Monday on the deaths from COVID-19 in New York’s nursing homes that that he says shows the virus came in through infected staff, not through hospital readmissions.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has been criticized for a March 25 directive that required nursing homes to accept COVID-19-positive residents back from hospitals.
Dr. Zucker presented data that indicates the virus might actually have come from asymptomatic staff, and it might have been present earlier than anyone initially thought, as early as mid to late February, when visitors were still permitted.
He says the peak of deaths in nursing homes most affected by the virus corresponded with high death rates in their surrounding communities.
And he says the death rate at nursing homes peaked on April 8, a full week before the death rates peaked at hospitals.
“The data shows that the nursing home residents got COVID from the staff and also presumably those who visited them,” Zucker said.
The health commissioner says no one understood the disease early on, or realized how widespread it was in the community.
“And therefore, it was able to be introduced into a vulnerable population,” he said.
Zucker says if anything is to blame for the deaths, it is the virus itself.
