May 16, 2020 11:43 AM
The state of New York omitted coronavirus deaths from nursing homes and adult care facilities after it was revealed that a significant amount of individuals were dying from the virus in those types of residences.
The New York Department of Health admitted that its most recent reporting does not fully account for the known coronavirus deaths among nursing home residents, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In early May, reports from the state started to leave out long-term care residents who lost their lives from the coronavirus in hospitals, and New York still leads the nation in nursing home deaths, with 5,433 as of Wednesday.
The New York Department of Health confirmed it was disclosing nursing home deaths regardless of whether the patient died there or in a hospital until around April 28. But the department made a “subtle” change around May 3, according to web archives, and now only reports deaths if the patient died while physically present at a facility.
New York’s coronavirus tracker “currently does not include out of facility deaths,” Jill Montag, an NYSDOH spokeswoman, said. “Deaths of nursing home and adult care facility residents that occurred at hospitals is accounted for in the overall fatality data on our COVID-19 tracker.”
“In other words, New York’s nursing home and adult care facility coronavirus deaths tracker omits any individuals who contracted coronavirus while living at a long-term care facility but died in a hospital,” the Daily Caller article states.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has come under fire for not protecting nursing home residents in his state and even going so far as to mandate that nursing homes accept coronavirus patients.
“Cuomo has blood on his hands and is now attempting to blame the nursing homes,” conservative radio host Mark Levin said about Cuomo. “He’s unleashed law enforcement and his bureaucrats against the nursing homes that begged him not to send coronavirus patients into their residences. But he insisted.”
The vast majority of coronavirus deaths in New York City is made up of individuals 75 years of age and older.
This article originally appeared in WashingtonExaminer.comhttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/new-york-admits-purposely-undercounting-nursing-home-deaths-after-changing-reporting-rules