Congressman Antonio Delgado, DN.Y., is calling for an investigation into the manipulation of New York data related to coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.
Governor Andrew Cuomo and his administration were severely criticized for not fully reporting the figures after Cuomo ordered the nursing homes to receive residents who had been hospitalized with COVID-19. The backlash against this policy, which aimed to free up space in hospitals, intensified after Cuomo’s aide admitted that the government withheld data from the Department of Justice.
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“Politics should never come before people’s lives. The comments from the governor’s secretary are beyond disturbing and deserve a thorough investigation,” Delgado tweeted on Sunday. “Thousands of New Yorkers have lost family in nursing homes to COVID-19, a pain made worse by the inability to comfort their loved ones in their final hours. They deserve answers and responsibility.”
Fox News contacted Cuomo’s office to obtain their response to Delgado’s comments, but they did not respond immediately.
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Delgado’s tweet was in reference to Governor Melissa DeRosa’s secretary, who allegedly said that the Cuomo administration feared that data on COVID-19 deaths could “be used against us” by the Justice Department in the midst of its federal investigation launched against four states regarding deaths in nursing homes, including New York.
“We were in a position where we were not sure whether what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we gave you, what we started to say, would be used against us while we were not sure if there would be an investigation,” DeRosa told lawmakers, according to the New York Post, which first released the information.
On Friday, DeRosa sought to clarify her comments, saying she was “explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we need to temporarily void the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first.”
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The Justice Department was looking for information on the number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19, and New York only released data on those who died while in nursing homes, not to mention those who may have died in hospitals or somewhere else.
A report by New York Attorney General Letitia James in late January said the state Department of Health underreported COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by up to 50%.
Vandana Rambaran of Fox News contributed to this report.