Lawmakers have established a date for hearings on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s controversial policies for handling nursing homes in New York. More than 6,000 people inside nursing homes have died of the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19.
The hearings will be held August 3rd and August 10th.
Many have been critical of the Governor’s policies, which included a series of executive orders meant to help nursing homes handle the coronavirus pandemic.
The problem is that many of those policies have been viewed as factors in creating hot spots at nursing homes across New York.
One executive order in particular, was signed in March. It allowed hospitals to send residents back to nursing homes before they were fully-recovered from the Novel Coronavirus.
That order was reversed more than a month later in May – after the virus had ripped through many facilities in Upstate New York.
Cuomo defended his policy, noting that the virus was spread by staff, not residents.
“And it’s very dangerous for senior citizens to be in the hospital for two weeks, sepses, secondary infections, etc.,” Cuomo said. “By the time a person was transferred, after nine or 10 days, they were no longer contagious. What all the data says is the reason there were infections in the nursing homes was because staff brought in the infection.”
There is bipartisan support for an investigation into the 6,300 nursing home residents in New York that have died from the coronavirus.
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