According to a new interview, nursing home executives were “petrified” by the Cuomo government’s order a year ago to send elderly patients to long-term care centers instead of hospitals during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Michael Kraus, administrator of the residence on Staten Island, said his concerns were “downplayed” by state officials.
“Many facilities vocalized it,” Kraus said in a Fox News interview that aired in full on Thursday. “They were petrified, but they were more petrified by the Department of Health … once [my concern] was shot down, I never spoke [about it] again “.
The Cuomo administration is facing a federal investigation to prevent the response to the health crisis in nursing homes and then cover the true number of deaths.
Last month, the State Department of Health admitted that more than 15,000 residents in residences and long-term care centers died of COVID-10 in the state, nearly double the approximately 8,700 deaths they claimed. initially state officials.
Last month, The Post exclusively reported that one of Cuomo’s top aides, Melissa DeRosa, told Democratic leaders in a video conference that we “froze” for fear that federal prosecutors would “use real numbers against us.”
Cuomo’s top advisers also pushed state officials to omit residents of residences who died in hospitals due to COVID-19 due to the death toll, skewing the overall total.
The Cuomo nursing home scandal is being investigated by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
His order of March 25, 2020 was revoked two months later.
Cuomo downplayed the debacle and declined to apologize for the mishandling.
“Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died, ”he said at a January press conference.