Andrew Cuomo refuses to face facts on nursing-home coronavirus horrors

Not content with refusing to admit his team has made a mistake in forcing nursing homes to take in patients infected with the deadly coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken to answering questions on the subject with insults.

“Ohh, money,” the gov snarked Monday, suggesting a nonprofit nursing home didn’t relocate its infected residents to hospitals because it would then “no longer be getting paid.”

Poppycock. As The Post reported, Cobble Hill Health Center CEO Donny Tuchman begged the state Department of Health for help on April 8, telling four officials his facility was almost out of protective gear and had more than 50 symptomatic patients.

“There is no way for us to prevent the spread under these conditions,” Tuchman e-mailed. “Is there anything more we can do to protect our patients and staff?”

The DOH responded with a bureaucratic cheat sheet on how to conserve equipment that Tuchman didn’t have. A day later, it spurned another appeal.

Now the Brooklyn home has seen the state’s greatest number of coronavirus-related deaths, 55 at last count.

Cuomo’s “money” jape doesn’t even make sense. Cobble Hill would have lost money just the same if the state had granted Tuchman’s request to transfer the infected.

DOH chief Howard Zucker still needs to answer for his March 25 edict forcing care facilities to admit COVID-positive patients.

Cuomo himself has noted that nursing homes are “the feeding frenzy for this virus.” Yet he claims — despite evidence to the contrary — that care facilities can transfer patients if they can’t handle them.

Other states have designated a few specialized nursing homes for COVID-19 cases. Why not New York?

Coronavirus complications have claimed over 3,600 lives in Empire State nursing homes. How many more will it take before Cuomo admits Zucker was wrong — and finally moves to protect our seniors?

Source

Newzandar News

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