#Doc who gave COVID tests to Cuomo family leaves state employment

The state Health Department employee who helped administer COVID-19 tests to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s relatives during the pandemic has left state employment, officials said. 

Dr. Eleanor Adams — a public health physician and special advisor to the DOH’s embattled Commissioner Howard Zucker — reportedly secured and gave coronavirus tests to Cuomo’s family members, including the governor’s younger brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. 

Adams also helped author a DOH-commissioned study that was later revealed to have withheld the total number of nursing home deaths tied to the deadly disease. 

“After 14 months of non-stop work and with COVID cases rapidly declining, Dr. Eleanor Adams has left the State Department of Heath to pursue other career interests,” said DOH spokesman Gary Holmes in a statement. 

“For more than 11 years, and in the darkest days of this pandemic, Dr. Adams was a dedicated public servant, and the agency and all New Yorkers are better for it.  While Dr. Adams will be missed, she leaves behind a talented group of state epidemiologists led by Dr. Emily Lutterloh, who I am pleased to announce is now serving as Acting Director of Epidemiology.” 

Adams helped coordinate expedited testing visits to Chris Cuomo’s Hamptons house and Kenneth Cole — the fashion designer married to Gov. Cuomo’s sister —  received priority treatment at a state-run coronavirus testing facility, according to the Washington Post and Albany Times Union.

She also worked on an agency-commissioned report released last July that was rewritten by top Cuomo aides to exclude data pertaining to the true number of nursing home residents that died in facilities and after getting so sick they were transferred to hospitals where they later expired. 

Adams has worked for the DOH since 2010 according to her LinkedIn, but records show she has never been on the state payroll. 

The DOH previously told The Post her salary is paid by Health Research Inc. — the department’s nonprofit, which, according to its most recent IRS filing received nearly $760 million in federal and state funding during the fiscal year that ended in March 2019 — but neither the DOH or HRI would specify her salary.

HRI did not respond to an immediate request for comment as to the status of her employment. 

The physician’s departure marks a number of exits from the Cuomo administration as the governor faces multiple scandals and investigations into allegations of sexual harassment launched by the state Attorney General’s office as well as State Assembly-led impeachment inquiry.