Andrew Cuomo set to publicly testify over New York Covid nursing home deaths

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will publicly testify, for the first time, about his controversial nursing home advisory issued during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, September 10, Cuomo will return to a panel before the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to testify about the scandal in which he undersold the number of Covid-related deaths in nursing homes after directing the facilities to accept patients who were suspected of having or did have Covid.

Cuomo testified behind closed doors to the subcommittee in June. A transcript of that has yet to be released.

In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, the subcommittee said Cuomo was “shockingly callous” while speaking about the nursing home mortality rate and “deflected responsibility” for issuing the directive.

“Andrew Cuomo owes answers to the 15,000 families who lost loved ones in New York’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Representative Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the subcommittee, said in a statement. 

Though it has been more than four years since the scandal occurred, Cuomo and his administration have been under state and federal investigations regarding the number of reported nursing home deaths which Cuomo’s office was found to have underreported by 50 percent.

It ties back to a March 25, 2020 directive that required nursing homes to accept Covid patients from hospitals regardless of their current infection status. That directive was later rescinded.

Facing scrutiny, Cuomo defended his administration’s decision, claiming it was issued in accordance with federal government guidance. The former governor later apologized for not acting quickly but has maintained there was no wrongdoing.

“The one question that needs to be answered is