New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is blaming President Trump and his administration for the recently-scrapped nursing home policy that some say led to thousands of coronavirus deaths. At a press conference, the governor clarified his state was simply following Trump's agencies' guidance.
According to Cuomo, New York was simply following instructions provided by the Republican Administration, adding that he is not trying to politicize the matter, and he is trying to depoliticize it, instead. Cuomo said the state shouldn't be criticized simply for following the president's policy.
The governor's office claim's that the state's first nursing home policy coincided with a Mar. 13 directives that was provided by the CMS (Trump Administration's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and the CDC (Centers from Disease Control and Prevention) to all states, outlining instructions on how to restrict the spread of the virus in nursing homes.
The guidance compels nursing homes to admit any patient that it would normally admit to their facility, including those from hospitals where COVID-19 patients were or are admitted. During a May 23 press conference, secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa noted that the guidance didn't give nursing homes an option to decide whether or not they should admit a patient.
Blaming Trump's CMS and CDC, DeRosa said a dozen other states followed the exact instructions as New York. Cuomo has come under fire from GOP politicians who accuse him of allowing recovering COVID-19 positive patients to leave hospitals and return to their local nursing homes, which helped the contagious virus in spreading to others.
Some of America's most vulnerable citizens live in nursing care facilities, making them coronavirus hotspots across the nation. New York has the highest reported coronavirus nursing home deaths with over 5,000 people succumbing to the deadly plague, though the state altered its counting method, leading to even higher numbers of nursing home patient deaths. Fox News reported.
Cuomo's May 23 response coincides with his previous explanations that suggest he was simply following guidelines provided by the Trump administration and the CDC. Admitting it is a political season, Cuomo refused to get into a political back-and-forth, adding that everyone demanding answers for why New York did that with coronavirus patients in nursing homes, need to know that the state was simply following the guidance doled out by President Trump’s CDC.
To put a lid on this conversation, Cuomo advised people should ask President Trump. A May 22 AP report strongly criticized Cuomo for mishandling the state's nursing home COVID-19 crisis. The report claims over 4,300 elderly patients with COVID-19 were admitted in vulnerable nursing homes citing a controversy-plagued state directive that was later scrapped due to criticisms it was causing America's deadliest outbreaks.