#Creep Cuomo’s continuing his COVID coverup

The sexual-misconduct allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo seem likely to drive him from office, sooner or later. But his coverup of deaths at nursing homes, after he ordered them to accept COVID-infectious patients, is just as strong an argument, if not a stronger one, for him to leave.

Yet most amazing, his coverup of COVID info continues to this day.

Last month, his Department of Health failed to provide records by the deadline for a stunning 59 of 62 Freedom of Information Law requests from the Empire Center, claiming it needed more time. What is Cuomo hiding?

Indeed, this is the same trick Cuomo used last year when the center, and others, sought info on COVID deaths in nursing homes, following Cuomo’s disastrous nursing-home order.

Back then, Cuomo insisted just 8,500 residents of nursing homes and other facilities died of COVID and refused to provide relevant data. Not until a review by state Attorney General Letitia James in January showed Cuomo hid thousands of nursing-home deaths — and a court ordered the release of additional info — was the number revised to 15,000.

The Empire Center’s Bill Hammond says his group’s 62 requests sought “detailed statistics on testing, hospitalizations and deaths,” much of which “would come from the same databases the Cuomo administration uses for daily progress reports.”

And such info shouldn’t even need to be requested; it should be made readily available: “You and the rest of the government are the stewards, not the owners, of public information,” a letter from Reinvent Albany reminded the gov in March. “When you obtain information important to New Yorkers’ everyday lives, you should publish it online and make it as easy to use as possible.”

Alas, even at this point, Cuomo is still hiding his record on COVID, which is why the state counts only confirmed, and not suspected, COVID deaths, letting it claim a toll of “only” 43,000 New Yorkers, and not 54,000, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put it.

His despicable treatment of his 11 sex-harassment accusers was horrible enough. But the nursing-home fiasco likely led to hundreds of deaths. New Yorkers need the full story. Pronto.