February 15th, local time, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo held a press conference to explain the latest situation and related issues related to the COVID-19 epidemic in New York State and answer reporters’ questions.
Regarding the pressure from outside public opinion, Cuomo said that the nursing home problem in New York has “facts” on the one hand and “political spin” on the other.
He said that since March last year, New York State has been consulting experts and following the guidance of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on whether people with COVID-19 should be sent back to nursing homes.
He stressed that only eligible nursing homes can apply for admission to these people with COVID-19.
During the revision of CDC guidance from March 25 to May 10, 2020, 98% of the 365 nursing homes in New York State that accept people infected with COVID-19 had an epidemic before they received the infected person.
In addition, Cuomo defended the “data concealment of the coronavirus epidemic”, saying that New York State had been updating the epidemic data to the U.S. Department of Justice and others, but on the other hand, he suspended the data application of the New York State Legislature.
Cuomo said that the epidemic is not over yet, and New York State has been counting and releasing data as soon as possible. New York State has previously updated data about infected people’ transfer from hospital to nursing home, or from nursing home to hospital, which has led to a vacancy in information, which makes false news and conspiracy theories fly all over the sky.
Cuomo further said that the nursing homes in New York State need to be reformed next, and the epidemic information will be updated more timely in the future, so that false news cannot continue to spread.
This comes after New York State released data to continuously raise the number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.
February 12, New York Governor Cuomo’s office confirmed the content of a recording that showed that Cuomo and his team did not report the real coronavirus death toll in nursing homes to state legislators because of fear that the previous U.S. government would use it to target them.
According to the Washington Post on the 13th, New York State Senator Jessica Ramos said in a statement: “At a time when we need people to trust their elected officials most, the governor and his team chose to deliberately lie and play politics with the lives of New Yorkers.”
