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Pictured is New York State Attorney General Letitia James. New York may have undercounted COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents by as much as 50%, the stateâs attorney general said in a report released Thursday.
ALBANY (AP) New York’s attorney general has joined calls for the state to loosen a partial immunity from lawsuits and criminal prosecutions it had granted to nursing homes at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring.
In a report issued Thursday, Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, documented how a number of homes failed to follow proper infection-control protocols as the virus raged.
Jan 29, 2021
ALBANY (AP) New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration confirmed Thursday that thousands more nursing home residents died of COVID-19 than the state’s official tallies had previously acknowledged, dealing a potential blow to his image as a pandemic hero.
The surprise development, after months of the state refusing to divulge its true numbers, showed that at least 12,743 long-term care residents died of the virus as of Jan. 19, far greater than the official tally of 8,505 on that day, cementing New York’s toll as one of the highest in the nation.
Those numbers are consistent with a report released just hours earlier by Attorney General Letitia James charging that the nursing home death count could be off by about 50 percent, largely because New York is one of the only states to count just those who died on facility grounds, not those who later died in the hospital.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was joined by his health commissioner Friday in denouncing a critical state report from the state attorney general's office that alleged severe under-counting of nursing home COVID-19 deaths.
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The race for New York City mayor took a couple of turns this week, with Zach Iscol exiting to launch a bid for city comptroller and “Real Housewives of New York City” star Barbara Kavovit hopping in to take his place. And some of the Brooklyn political dysfunction seeped into the race as well. Several candidates, including Dianne Morales, Andrew Yang, Maya Wiley and Scott Stringer, said they would boycott the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s upcoming mayoral forum over racist comments that District Leader Lori Maslow made on social media. Although she had already stepped down from her party leadership position, some progressive members of the party wanted her to resign as district leader and called for the boycott until she did. After several days, Maslow resigned, and as of now, at least Yang is once once again taking part in the forum. Keep reading for the rest of this week’s news.