The governor’s workplace has repeatedly mentioned the advisory was primarily based on federal steering, which prohibited discrimination primarily based on a coronavirus analysis. The state’s Division of Well being instructed CNN, “Residents had been admitted to nursing houses throughout that point not as an overflow facility, however as a result of that is the place they dwell.”
Cuomo mentioned that the advisory was a precaution if hospitals turned overwhelmed — calling it an “anticipatory rule” — which he mentioned did not occur.
“We by no means wanted nursing dwelling beds as a result of we all the time had hospital beds,” Cuomo instructed Finger Lakes Information. “So it simply by no means occurred in New York the place we would have liked to say to a nursing dwelling, ‘We want you to take this particular person despite the fact that they’re Covid-positive.’ It by no means occurred.”
Cuomo’s senior adviser Wealthy Azzopardi replied Thursday after publication and took subject with this willpower, saying that the governor was particularly referencing the hospital mattress scarcity. “The governor was crystal clear, he was saying that what didn’t materialize was the crunch for hospital beds, that each projection particularly the federal governments projections predicted was going to occur. That is what he mentioned by no means occurred. Individually the regulation has all the time been that nursing houses may solely settle for residents that they may adequately take care of. None of that has modified.”
“No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the [nursing home] solely primarily based on a confirmed or suspected analysis of COVID-19,” the advisory acknowledged. “[Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is set medically secure to be examined for COVID-19 previous to admission or readmission.”
CORRECTION: This headline has been up to date to appropriate an earlier model that mischaracterized Gov. Cuomo’s feedback about New York nursing houses taking in Covid-positive sufferers. The story has been up to date to incorporate remark from the governor’s workplace.