NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday sent letters to the governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan seeking data detailing their responses to COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes.
COVID-19 executive orders issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Gov. Phil Murphy and the governors of Pennsylvania and Michigan "may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents," the department said in a release Wednesday afternoon.
The department may launch an investigation into nursing home deaths in the four states under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, pending a review of the data, the release said.
"Protecting the rights of some of society's most vulnerable members, including elderly nursing home residents, is one of our country's most important obligations," Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband said in a statement. "We must ensure they are adequately cared for with dignity and respect and not unnecessarily put at risk."
Cuomo, for one, has garnered praise for flattening the curve in New York state, but has also come under fire for the state's handling of COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes.
New York state in March issued a controversial order stating that no nursing home resident should be "denied re-admission or admission… solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19."
Nursing homes were "prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident, who is determined medically stable, to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission," the order, which Cuomo reversed on May 10, stated.
The order did note that adult care facilities could not admit any residents who were symptomatic, unless they had staff members "capable of attending to the medical needs of a symptomatic COVID-19 patient."
As of mid-August, the state's official nursing home death toll had surpassed 6,600, but that figure may have been an undercount, the Associated Press reported.
In a joint statement released Wednesday evening, Cuomo and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called the Department of Justice's request "nothing more than a transparent politicization of the (department) in the middle of the Republican National Convention."
"It's no coincidence the moment the Trump administration is caught weakening the CDC's COVID-19 testing guidelines to artificially lower the number of positive cases, they launched this nakedly partisan deflection," they said. "At least 14 states — including Kentucky, Utah, and Arizona — have issued similar nursing home guidance all based on federal guidelines – and yet the four states listed in the DOJ's request have a Democratic governor."
"DOJ should send a letter to CMS and CDC since the State's advisories were modeled after their guidance," they added.
