In a leaked call, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s closest adviser admitted to concealing death figures at nursing homes in the state by COVID-19.
New York’s chief assistant governor, Andrew Cuomo, Admitted in a call with Democratic lawmakers that they delayed the delivery of coronavirus death data in nursing homes for fear that the Justice Department, then under the Donald Trump Administration, could use those numbers “against “.
The comments of Melissa DeRosa, considered the closest aide to Cuomo, have led to an increase in the number of lawmakers, both from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, demanding that the emergency powers he has be removed from the governor. , which allow you to impose coronavirus-related rules and restrictions unilaterally.
The so-called controversy, carried out by Zoom and private, took place with Democratic lawmakers, who last August had called for additional data on the number of deaths in nursing homes.
DeRosa admitted that he asked lawmakers last September if the Cuomo Administration could “pause” data collection and publish the information after the country’s Justice Department investigated the coronavirus response. New York State.
“Basically, we stood still because we were in a position where we weren’t sure what we were going to give to the Department of Justice or what we were going to give to you, (because) whatever we said was going to be used in our against and we didn’t know if there would be an investigation, ”DeRosa said in the conversation.
“This played an important role in all of this,” he admitted.
The details of this private interaction were revealed by the governor’s own office after a local conservative medium, the New York Post, published some of the information.
We recommend: Biden secured an additional 200 million vaccines for the US. UU., How many do they already have?
Cuomo had already been accused of “making up” the number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes in New York, the epicenter of the US pandemic. UU. During the spring of 2020, after the state Attorney General Letitia James released an extensive report.
In it, James alleged that Cuomo officials had not included in the deaths of nursing homes all those seniors who were transferred from such centers to hospitals and ended up dying here.
Following the publication of the New York Post information, DeRosa issued a statement in which he said that in the call he was simply trying to explain that “the request of the legislators to deal first with the sun had to be delayed. Application of the federal government “.
“As I said in the call with lawmakers, we could not meet their request as quickly as we would have liked. But we are committed to being better allies in the future, as we share the same goal of making New Yorkers as healthy as possible. during the pandemic, “he insisted on the letter.
Last January, James released a report denouncing that the state did not count thousands of deaths from COVID-19 recorded in nursing homes, which could be up to 50 percent more than officers.
The state government has put the death toll at more than 8,500 in residences, but James ’investigation points out the number could be much higher and he complained that several of these establishments failed to comply with basic measures to curb infections.
Since the pandemic crisis erupted, many voices have accused the Cuomo Administration of aggravating the crisis in these residences with measures such as the directive ordering these establishments to accept coronavirus-positive patients.
You may be interested in: The coronavirus has killed more people in the US. UU. That the last five wars