The government of the governor of NY, Andrew Cuomo, confirmed Thursday that they died of COVID-19 thousands of nursing home residents more than those previously recognized in official counts, which deals a possible blow to his image as a hero of the pandemic.
The surprising data, after months of refusal state to release its true figures, showed that at least 12,743 long-term residents died of the virus as of January 19, far more than the official number of 8,505 as of that date, bringing New York’s death toll be one of the highest in the country.
Those figures are consistent with a report released just hours earlier by Attorney General Letitia James, noting that the nursing home death toll could be underestimated by roughly 50%, largely because New York is one of the few states that only compute those who died in nursing homes, not those who died later in hospital.
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“While we cannot bring the individuals we lost in this crisis back to life, this report seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves, ”James said in a statement.
The 76-page report by a Democratic official, the same party the governor belongs to, undermines Cuomo’s frequent argument that criticism of his handling of the virus in nursing homes was part of a political operation to blame him, and it is a vindication for thousands of families who believed that their loved ones had been omitted from the counts to promote the image of the governor as a hero of the pandemic.
“It’s important to me that my mom is told,” said Vivian Zayas, whose 78-year-old mother died in April after contracting COVID-19 at a nursing home in West Islip, New York. “Families like mine knew that those figures they were not correct”.
Cuomo’s office referred all questions to the state Department of Health. Several hours after the report, the commissioner of the State Department of Health, Howard Zucker, released a lengthy statement to try to refute the report James but that basically confirmed his main conclusion.
Relatives of people killed by covid protest against Cuomo in New York. Photo: AP
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Zucker’s figure of 12,743 nursing home resident deaths included for the first time 3,829 confirmed COVID-19 deaths of residents who had been transferred to hospitals.
Those figures could be even higherBut the Health Department said its audit is still ongoing, did not break down suspected but unconfirmed deaths as caused by the virus and omitted those in assisted living facilities or other long-term care facilities.
However, Zucker disagrees with James’ characterization of his department’s official count as an “undercount.” He said that “the Department of Health was always clear that the data on its website refers to deaths in residences.”
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James has spent months studying the discrepancies between the number of deaths reported by the state Department of Health and the number of deaths reported. the residences themselves.
His researchers analyzed a sample of 62 of the roughly 600 nursing homes in the state. They reported 1,914 resident deaths from COVID-19, while the state Department of Health only recorded 1,229 deaths at those same facilities.
Thursday’s post backed the findings of an Associated Press investigation last year that concluded the state may be underestimating deaths up to 65%.
State Senator Gustavo Rivera, a Democrat who has criticized the Cuomo administration for the undercount of deaths, said he was “sadly surprised” by the report.
“Families who lost loved ones deserve honest answers,” Rivera said. “For their sake, I hope this report helps us uncover the truth and put policies in place to prevent these tragedies in the future.”
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DEATHS
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Source: Johns Hopkins
Chart: Flourish | Infographic: Clarion
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Cuomo, who published a book last fall in which boasted of his leadership In the fight against the virus, he has had no qualms about using the lower number of deaths in nursing homes in New York to argue that his state is doing better than others in caring for the people in those centers.
“There is no question that we are in a hyper-political environment where everyone wants to point the finger at others,” Cuomo said on CBS’s “This Morning” in October. “In New York, we’re actually 46th out of 50 in terms of the percentage of nursing home deaths … it’s not a predominantly New York problem.”
The attorney general’s report also criticized New York’s controversial policy implemented on March 25, which sought to create more space in hospitals. discharging patients with COVID-19 in recovery to take them to nursing homes, which critics say was a factor driving the outbreaks in nursing homes.
James’ report states that these admissions “may have contributed to increasing the risk of infection for nursing home residents and subsequent deaths,” noting that at least 4,000 nursing home residents with COVID-19 they died later of that directive. However, the James report cautions that the issue would require further study to conclusively demonstrate that relationship.
The New York Department of Health last summer released a highly criticized report claiming that the March 25 policy, which was repealed in May, was not “a significant factor” in the deaths.
“As the pandemic and our investigations continue,” he wrote, “it is imperative that we understand why residents of New York nursing homes suffered unnecessarily at such an alarming rate.”
Associated Press
Translation: Elisa Carnelli
ap
