8 April 2020: New York DOH Won't Release COVID Nursing Home Death Data

State won't release Covid-19 data

We inserted this entry into the timeline on 16 April 2021 because the situation it describes came up in the context of a later timeline entry on that date. This article is one of the first to describe the stonewalling tactics the Cuomo administration and the New York Department of Health under Commissioner Howard Zucker would use to conceal the full extent of COVID-related deaths among nursing home residents during the period in which the administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. Here is an excerpt:

The state Health Department also refuses to identify by name the nursing homes where Covid-19 cases and deaths have occurred.

"We want to protect the privacy of the people in the nursing homes," said state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker on Wednesday at Gov. Andrew Cuomo's daily Covid-19 briefing.

The Buffalo News has filed a Freedom of Information Law request for that data.

This article was originally published on 11 April 2020, so the daily COVID-19 briefing to which it refers occurred on Wednesday, 8 April 2020, which is the relevant date of interest for this entry.

Ultimately, the New York Department of Health was sued under the state's Freedom Of Information Law and was compelled to release the data following a 3 February 2021 ruling against Cuomo administration.