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New York State Team
After nearly a year of being apart, Laurene Gilbert excitedly prepared to visit her partner inside a New York nursing home when state officials eased COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on Feb. 26.
She quickly discovered the policy changes failed to end their harrowing separation.
More than two weeks later, Gilbert and countless other people are still barred from visiting residents at long-term care facilities in New York amid confusion and delays tied to implementing new state and federal guidelines.
Only 275 of the 610 nursing homes across New York were eligible for visits on Monday, state officials said, as advocates pleaded with regulators and nursing home operators to end the isolation that has caused mental and physical trauma among many frail and elderly New Yorkers at the facilities, which are now much safer due to COVID-19 vaccinations.
New York State Team
The decision by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration to withhold the true COVID-19 death toll at nursing homes faces new scrutiny as a self-inflicted political wound that is contributing to the Democratic governor’s potential downfall.
Political observers suggested Cuomo should have acted sooner to release the number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 at hospitals last year as requested by lawmakers and reporters, thus avoiding the scandal of undercounting the deaths to seemingly boost his popularity and fend off political attacks from the Trump administration.
“Much of it is more about refusing to take ownership and refusing to acknowledge you may have made mistakes,” said Boris Heersink, an assistant professor of political science at Fordham University, referring to the nursing home secrecy.