#Health officials ordered coronavirus patients to nursing homes despite empty beds

Enlarge Image

NYC Office of Emergency Management First Deputy Commissioner Andrew D’Amora
Taidgh Barron/NY Post

State Health Department officials knew there were hundreds of empty hospital beds in New York City specifically set up to treat coronavirus as they ordered elderly COVID-positive patients returned to nursing homes, city officials revealed Thursday.

The disclosure from a top official at the city’s Office of Emergency Management came in response to a slew of questions about nursing homes during a City Council hearing examining the city’s preparedness for a potential second wave of the pandemic.

“New York State Department of Health was operating an evacuation coordination center at the Javits Center,” OEM’s First Deputy Commissioner Andrew D’Amora told Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island).

“So, they were aware of bed availability, spaces that were able to be used — but it was ultimately up to the Department of Health where those patients were.”

Borelli, the committee’s chairman, followed up: “Just to be clear, the [state] Department of Health was well aware of the problem of COVID-19 patients returning to nursing homes, but they were also keenly aware of beds in facilities that were designed to take COVID-19 patients?”

D’Amora answered: “I believe so, yes.”

However, D’Amora tried to dodge when Borrelli asked if many of the nursing home coronavirus deaths in the Big Apple should be linked back to the state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker’s controversial March 25 directive that ordered nursing homes to take coronavirus patients who no longer required hospitalization.

“Yea, I would probably say there’s a lot of factors,” D’Amora replied. “I’d just say on a positive note, we have supplied PPE to nursing homes. We tried to do the best we can to support them, but ultimately that policy decision was the state Department of Health.”

Zucker and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have come under intense scrutiny for the order that critics say undermined efforts to keep the deadly disease out of New York’s nursing homes and adult daycare facilities, which are home to populations especially vulnerable to the virus.

The virus has killed 6,148 New Yorkers who lived in nursing homes and either tested positive for the disease or exhibited its symptoms, according to the state’s most recent tallies that were published June 9.

All told, 24,404 people have died in the Empire State after testing positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic.

It’s unclear what percentage of overall deaths can be linked to nursing homes because state officials have refused to release their count of deaths were victims showed symptoms but could not get tested, contradicting repeated promises to make the data available.