Albany, N.Y. - New York Attorney General Leticia James is accusing Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration of under-counting coronavirus nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent.
The state has a nursing home death toll of more than 85-hundred. In a new report, the state is accused, among other things, of only counting deaths in the homes and not residents who were transferred and then died in the hospital. James points to one example of a nursing home reporting 11 deaths, but James found it to be actually 40 deaths including some who died after being sent to the hospital.
The report also says many nursing homes did not comply with infection control policies. James also says there was insufficient COVID testing in homes in the early stages of the pandemic.
She says government guidance requiring the admission of COVID-19 patients into nursing homes may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities.
The report is also critical of the insufficient staffing of nursing homes.
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