The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic questioned four former members of the disgraced former New York governor. Andrew Cuomo’s administration will testify about the “must accept” order issued to nursing homes in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A letter was sent Friday to Elizabeth Garvey, Cuomo’s former special adviser and senior adviser. Gareth Rhodes, former Deputy Director of the New York Department of Financial Services. Former policy advisor to former Governor James Malatras. Linda Lacewell is a former superintendent of the Department of Financial Services.
The letter asked for an in-person interview before a Republican-led committee investigating the government’s actions in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) told the four that if they do not appear for voluntary interviews next month, the committee will take “mandatory” action. He warned that he would be forced to consider
Under the Cuomo administration, the New York State Department of Health issued an order on March 25, 2020 forcing nursing homes to accept discharged coronavirus-positive patients.
The then-governor partially rescinded that mandate in a press conference on May 10, 2020, blocking New Yorkers infected with the coronavirus from being transferred directly from hospitals to nursing homes and admitting them from other facilities. allowed.
In a July 2020 report, the Cuomo administration downplayed the total number of coronavirus deaths associated with the policy by excluding patient deaths that occurred outside of facilities.
Nearly two years later, New York City’s auditor general found that Mr. Cuomo had “misled the public” by undercounting those deaths by more than 50%.
Cuomo’s order could have resulted in 1,000 additional nursing home deaths, according to an Empire Center analysis.
“New Yorkers in particular deserve answers,” the House Coronavirus Task Force wrote in a post on X, including a letter sent to former Cuomo administration officials.
The committee’s tweet noted that “more than 15,000 Americans have died” from the coronavirus in New York nursing homes.
