After facing criticism over the handling of nursing facility outbreaks, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday that New York nursing homes must start twice-weekly coronavirus testing for all staffers, and will no longer be sent COVID-19 patients leaving hospitals.
The new testing requirements and ban on hospitals sending coronavirus patients to nursing homes came a day after an AP report in which residents’ relatives, nursing home watchdogs and politicians from both parties criticized the Cuomo administration’s policies on both. They second-guessed a state directive as requiring nursing homes to take on new residents infected with COVID-19 — an order that critics said accelerated outbreaks in facilities that are prime breeding grounds for infectious diseases.
Of the nation’s more than 26,000 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, over 5,200 are in New York – the highest number of nursing home deaths in the country. Now, workers will be tested twice a week, Cuomo said at a news briefing.
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