White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday the Justice Department would decide whether to justify an investigation into Andrew Cuomo’s role in deaths at the COVID-19 nursing home.
Cuomo’s government has probably taken the bad toll in nursing homes by about 50 percent, according to a Thursday report by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The death toll was driven by a March order from the state health department that required nursing homes to accept coronavirus-positive patients.
A journalist asked Psaki during a White House briefing: “Would President Biden support a federal investigation into what happened and the role of Governor Andrew Cuomo?”
Psaki said: ‘I saw these reports. I would say that any investigation would refer to the Department of Justice. ”
Under pressure from the journalist or the White House, further review is warranted, Psaki said: ‘Again, any investigation will be led by the Department of Justice. We are in a new era where they are independent and they will determine which way they go forward. ”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The Attorney General reviewed the data from 62 nursing homes and found that 1914 residents died from COVID-19 – 56 percent more than the 1,229 reported by the state.
The data suggests that the death toll in New York could be more than 13,000. The official count is 8,711 and does not count patients who were transported to their hospital before their death.
James’ report would mean that nearly one-third of the more than 42,000 deaths in New York were linked to nursing homes, underscoring Cuomo’s claim to manage the crisis effectively.
New York still has the highest death rate in the US due to the respiratory lice, which claims the lives of elderly people out of proportion. The second highest number of deaths is in California, with less than 40,000 deaths, although California has more than twice the number of COVID-19 diagnoses.
The Department of Justice under former President Donald Trump has reviewed the situation at nursing homes in New York. In October, The Post reported that the Department of Justice was demanding more information from the state after an initial review of data indicated a significant undercount.
Federal sources told The Post that an initial federal review of two dozen state-run nursing homes in New York found that about 400 residents died from COVID-19, a third more than the approximately 300 deaths reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.