Gov. Andrew Cuomo commented for the first time on Wednesday about allegations that he gave priority to COVID-19 tests for his family and friends, last spring when the tests were scarce.
Reports in the Washington Post, New York Times and Albany Times Union detailed accusations that Cuomo gave family members, including his mother and his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, special access to coronavirus tests. The reports said the governor dispatched a state health department doctor to their homes and used the state police to rush deliver the tests to the state’s processing lab.
CNN has already confirmed that Chris Cuomo received the tests, and Cuomo did not deny the allegations, saying that people who visited him during the early days of the pandemic received testing, but he said he was not closely monitoring the program.
"I was not involved in the testing program to that intimate level," Cuomo said. "People I would meet with and I would be in exposure with, I was aware that they were being tested."
The governor said he couldn’t say more, because the allegations are part of an impeachment inquiry that’s being conducted by the State Assembly.
