WSJ: Cuomo Advisers Altered COVID-19 Death Toll in Report on Nursing Homes

By Staff, Agencies

Advisers of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo altered a report on COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes in order to downplay the actual figures, the Wall Street Journal [WSJ] reported Friday.

Citing people with knowledge of the report’s formulation, the WSJ suggested that while data showed that 6,432 nursing-home residents died of COVID-19 by July, 2020, the real figure was closer to 10,000.

However, state officials now say the figure could be as high as 15,000 – around 50 percent higher than earlier official death tolls.

According to WSJ, Cuomo’s advisers pressured state officials to scrap figures of residents who died in hospitals after contracting the disease in nursing homes, and instead, write up only those who died inside care homes.

The governor came under fire for his management of the pandemic, with New York suffering one of the heaviest blows in the United States by the coronavirus.

As of March 5, 47,565 people have died in the state, second only to New Jersey in deaths per 100,000, according to data analyzed by Statista.

The beleaguered governor faces increasing political pressure, as Republican and some Democrat lawmakers called on him to step down for his role in compelling nursing homes to receive COVID-19 patients and two sexual harassment accusations by former staffers.