WASHINGTON – New York governor Andrew Cuomo and state health commissioner last year instructed state health officials to prioritize the Covid-19 test for some of the governor’s relatives and powerful people with ties to his government, according to The Albany Times Union.
Senior health officials conducted Covid-19 tests for Cuomo’s brother Chris, CNN anchor, as well as for his mother and at least one of his sisters, often in private homes, the report said, citing three people with direct knowledge of the subject.
Priority testing was also given to the head of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, Patrick Foye, and the executive director of the New York and New Jersey Port Authority, Rick Cotton, and his wife, the report said. Media members, state legislators and their employees were also tested.
Government officials said testing at the start of the pandemic was not preferential, noting that public nurses were being sent to test those who were symptomatic in New Rochelle, the site of the state’s first outbreak.
“It’s being a little distorted with, like, a crooked intention. … We made a point of testing the people they believed had been exposed,” an adviser from Cuomo’s office told The Times Union. “All of this was being done in good faith in an effort to track the virus.”
A senior adviser to Cuomo, Richard Azzopardi, called the allegations “insincere efforts to rewrite the past”.
“In the early days of this pandemic, when there was a strong emphasis on contact tracking, we were absolutely going the extra mile to test people – including, in some cases, going to people’s homes and door to door in places like New Rochelle – to harvest samples of those believed to have been exposed to Covid in order to identify cases and prevent others, “Azzopardi told the newspaper. “Among the people we served were members of the general public, including lawmakers, reporters, government officials and their families, who feared they had contracted the virus and had the ability to spread it even more.”
Chris Cuomo tested positive for Covid-19 in March last year and isolated himself in his basement, coming back on the air the following month.
CNN spokesman Matt Dornic said on Wednesday in response to the report: “We are generally not involved in the medical decisions of our employees. However, it is not surprising that in the early days of a global pandemic that occurs once in a century, when Chris was showing symptoms and was concerned about the possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for advice and help, like any human being would do. “
The governor was praised for his way of dealing with coronavirus in New York state last year, holding daily press conferences to update the public on the situation. He has since been criticized, however, for underreporting the number of deaths in Covid-19 nursing homes, which is now being investigated.
The report comes at a time when Cuomo faces bipartisan calls to resign after several women accused him of sexual harassment. The governor said he did not make inappropriate advances or touch a woman inappropriately and refused to resign.
