Gov. Andrew Cuomo admits to a delay and “creating pain,” but stopped short of a full apology for the state’s withholding of virus death data from state lawmakers.
ALBANY, N.Y. — Admitting a degree of fault for the first time, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that his administration’s lack of transparency about the scope of virus-related deaths in nursing homes in New York was a mistake. By failing to answer questions from state lawmakers and the news media, Mr. Cuomo acknowledged that the state created a void that was “filled with skepticism, cynicism, and conspiracy theories which furthered confusion.” Speaking in the State Capitol, Mr. Cuomo made his first remarks since a top aide to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, privately told some state lawmakers last week that the state had withheld data from the Legislature because it feared that the Trump administration would use the information to begin a federal investigation into the state’s handling of nursing homes. The governor said on Monday that he had not delivered information because his office was busy with the federal request, which was made in late August, and conceded that he did not answer questions about the total toll from lawmakers or the press. “There was a delay,” Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat. The governor’s explanation was quickly criticized by legislative leaders, who said they were not informed about the possibility of the federal inquiry at the time and that Mr. Cuomo’s administration could have released data as soon as it had handled the federal request in early September. More than 15,000 people have died from the coronavirus in New York’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities. But as recently as late January, the state was reporting only about 8,500 fatalities, excluding virus-related deaths that occurred physically outside of those facilities, such as in hospitals. About two weeks ago, the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, accused the Cuomo administration of severely undercounting those deaths connected to nursing homes. Hours later, the state updated those numbers, adding thousands of deaths to the toll. Since then, a court order has resulted in more updates, further increasing the number of official deaths. Ms. James’s assertion of an undercount of total deaths of nursing home residents fueled accusations that the Cuomo administration may have artificially depressed the number of those deaths to try to deflect blame for a policy set early in the pandemic: sending nursing home residents who had been hospitalized with the coronavirus back to the nursing homes.
