Nurse managers were ‘petrified’ a year ago by Cuomo’s order to send elderly patients to long-term care facilities instead of hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new interview.
Michael Kraus, a nursing home administrator on Staten Island, said his concerns were being “shot down” by government officials.
“Many facilities have expressed this,” Kraus said in a Fox News interview that would air in full on Thursday. ‘They were petrified, but they were petrified of the Department of Health … as soon as it was [my concern] was shot down, I never spoke [about it] again. ”
The Cuomo administration is facing a federal investigation because it fought the response to the health crisis in nursing homes – and then covered up the true death toll.
Last month, the state Department of Health conceded that more than 15,000 residents of nursing homes and long-term care died from COVID-10 in the state – nearly twice the approximately 8,700 deaths initially claimed by government officials.
Last month, The Post exclusively reported that one of Cuomo’s top assistants, Melissa DeRosa, said in a video conference call to Democratic leaders that “we froze” for fear the true numbers against us would be used by federal prosecutors.
The best Cuomo advisers have also successfully pushed government officials to leave out residents of nursing homes who died in hospitals due to COVID-19, causing the total to go awry.
Cuomo’s nursing home scandal is being investigated by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
His order on 25 March 2020 was revoked two months later.
Cuomo underestimated the debacle and refused to apologize for the mishandling.
“Who cares [if they] died in hospital, died in a nursing home? They are dead, “he told a news conference in January.