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A federal choose on Monday dismissed a lawsuit in opposition to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over his dealing with of nursing residence deaths through the COVID-19 pandemic.
New York households with relations who died from COVID-19 in nursing houses filed the lawsuit in early 2022, accusing Cuomo’s administration of undercounting fatalities.
“Over the past 4 years, the controversy over COVID in nursing houses has been weaponized, distorted and contorted past recognition by these utilizing this case for their very own politics,” Cuomo spokesman Wealthy Azzopardi stated in an announcement to Fox Information. “Nevertheless, anytime this will get taken out of the political enviornment, the reality wins. The choose at present dominated to dismiss this case simply because the DOJ – which launched three separate probes – and the Manhattan district lawyer did beforehand. As soon as once more, justice has prevailed.”
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FILE: Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo arrives to testify earlier than the Choose Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic within the Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing on the U.S. Capitol on September 10, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura)
Cuomo was broadly lauded within the early months of the pandemic, however his fame took successful amid revelations that his administration launched an incomplete accounting of the deaths at nursing houses and assisted residing amenities.
He resigned from workplace in August 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, which he denies.
Cuomo testified earlier than the subcommittee in June, but it surely was behind closed doorways. High former Cuomo administration officers additionally had been interviewed as a part of the investigation.
A separate state report commissioned by Cuomo’s successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and launched this summer season, discovered that whereas the insurance policies on how nursing houses ought to deal with COVID-19 had been “rushed and uncoordinated,” they had been primarily based on the most effective understanding of the science on the time.
FILE: Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is sworn in to testify earlier than the Choose Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic within the Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing on the U.S. Capitol on September 10, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura)
Cuomo confronted a grilling from Republican lawmakers earlier this month throughout a congressional subcommittee listening to.
Republicans who questioned the Democrat zeroed in on a controversial directive his administration issued in March of 2020 that originally barred nursing houses from refusing to simply accept sufferers simply because they’d had COVID-19. Greater than 9,000 recovering coronavirus sufferers had been launched from hospitals into nursing houses underneath the directive, which was rescinded amid hypothesis that it had accelerated outbreaks.
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Cuomo defended his actions and blamed the previous Trump administration for failing to supply sufficient testing and private protecting tools within the early days of the pandemic.
“These are all diversions responsible New York and different states for the culpability of the federal response, which was malpractice,” Cuomo stated.
New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo (C), New York Metropolis Mayor Invoice DeBlasio (R) and New York state Division of Well being Commissioner Howard Zucker maintain a information convention on the primary confirmed case of COVID-19 in New York on March 2, 2020, in New York Metropolis. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Photos)
A report issued by the Home committee did not delve into the query of whether or not important numbers of individuals discharged from hospitals had been nonetheless contagious with the virus once they had been readmitted to nursing houses, or whether or not they then handed the virus to different sufferers.
Cuomo instructed the panel that its report offered no proof to help the allegation that the directive helped unfold the virus.
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There have been about 15,000 COVID-19 deaths amongst long-term care residents in New York, excess of the preliminary quantity disclosed. Cuomo stated some figures had been initially withheld out of considerations about accuracy.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
Bradford Betz is a Fox Information Digital breaking reporter overlaying crime, political points, and far more.
