New York state nursing homes remain vulnerable to coronavirus, report

Nursing homes in New York remain extremely vulnerable to the coronavirus, according to a new report.

Despite being nine months into the global pandemic, nursing homes in New York have found few ways to protect their residents from the sometimes deadly virus, according to the report released Thursday by the Empire Center for Public Policy.

The report shows that from late October to late November, nursing home residents accounted for 25% of New York's coronavirus deaths, while account for just 0.5% of the state population.

Nearly 270 nursing home residents died of the novel virus last month.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has garnered national praise for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But a vocal faction of his constituents remain critical of his March mandate that required nursing homes to accept recovering coronavirus patients.

Those patients, most of whom were not tested for the virus before being admitted to the eldercare homes, are widely considered the reason that more than 6,500 nursing home residents died from virus that quickly spread among them elderly- and assisted-care facilities in the spring.

An analysis from the New York health department determined that there was no causal link between the governor's order and the thousands of deaths. However, most remain skeptical of that report and lawmakers, policy institutes, and media outlets have submitted a plethora of Freedom of Information Act requests to better understand the official death toll numbers.