NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New data released by the New York State Department of Health confirms the number of COVID-19-related deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities is closer to 15,000.
“We knew it was bad in nursing homes, but it turns out that it was 50 or 60% worse,” says Bill Hammond, a senior health policy fellow for the thinktank Empire Center for Public Policy.
The group sued to force the state to release more data on nursing home deaths and when the information was quietly released, the number of deaths since March 1, 2020 went from over 9,000 to nearly 15,000.
The health department’s data showed over 13,000 confirmed and presumed COVID-19 deaths were in nursing homes, and nearly 4,000 of those deaths occurred after a resident was transported out of the facility. It also showed around 1,700 confirmed and presumed deaths inside long-term care facilities, of which, about 1,400 deaths occurred after a resident was transported elsewhere.
Hammond says the 63% increase was shocking, but they are still expecting more data to be released by Wednesday’s deadline.
“These numbers are cumulative totals. We asked for the daily numbers throughout the pandemic so that we could get an idea of how things shifted over time,” Hammond explained.
Empire Center is still waiting to see the impact of New York State’s March 25, 2020 directive that forced overwhelmed nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients.
Hammond believes that directive led to hundreds of cases that could have been avoided, and in turn, deaths.
“Most of those residents probably caught the virus in a nursing home,” Hammond says.
The state health department has not responded to a request for comment.
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