ALBANY, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke publicly for the first time Friday since Attorney General Letitia James released a report accusing the state of undercounting COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes.
The scathing report cited a lack of transparency and accountability. For one, the state told nursing homes to take COVID-19 patients from hospitals, but Cuomo said it wasn't his doing, diverting the blame onto the former Trump administration.
"The State Department of Health followed federal guidance, so if you think there was a mistake then go talk with the federal government. It's not about pointing fingers of blame, it's that this became political football," Cuomo said.
At one point, it sounded as if the governor might accept some responsibility.
"Do I wish... I wish this never happened," Cuomo said. "I wish none of it happened. I wish there was no COVID. I wish no old people died. I wish I didn't have to call out National Guard, some of whom got sick and died. I wish I didn't have to ask essential workers to leave their homes. Bus drivers, some of whom got sick and died. I wish I didn't have to ask the nurses and the doctors to work around the clock and deal with hell. Some of whom got sick and died. I wish none of it happened, that's what I wish."
The governor did not mention James' report, which alleged his administration undercounted nursing home deaths by possibly as much as 50 percent.
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The question about how many nursing home residents died of COVID-19 at hospitals has been asked for months and the state declined to answer until the state attorney general's office released the report Thursday.
Almost 4,000 died at hospitals, but Cuomo doesn't see that as significant.
"Whether a person died in a hospital or died in a nursing home, people died," Cuomo said.
He insisted that the death toll is accurate, regardless of where people died.
State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the state was preparing to release the number of nursing home resident who died in hospitals in February.
Meanwhile, James is joining state lawmakers in calling for the repeal of the partial immunity that was granted to nursing homes at the height of the pandemic, which protected the facilities from lawsuit and criminal prosecutions.
James said the nursing homes failed to follow infection control protocols, mixing healthy residents with patients infected with COVID-19, failing to test staff for the virus or forcing sick employees to keep working.
Richard Mollot, of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, hopes the report serves as a wake-up call that nursing homes have been flying under the radar for too long.
"We need to have meaningful oversight, standards are not self-implementing," Mollot said.
Bill Hammond, of the Empire Center for Public Policy, said the report flushed out the beginnings of the data that they've been looking for.
The group is still pushing ahead with its lawsuit against the state health department, which has not cooperated with a freedom of information request for more specific data on nursing home deaths.
"We don't have a clear idea of where those additional deaths occurred, and when they occurred, facility by facility and day by day," Hammond said, adding that the order in late March for nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients from hospitals was provocative. "There's just no way that didn't make a bad situation worse."
His lawsuit isn't about blaming anyone, he said it's all about transparency.
"We want to learn everything we can from what happened this time so that we don't repeat mistakes, and so that we do a better job next time," Hammond said.
Hammond said Cuomo and Zucker have lost credibility.
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