1 June 2020: Families to Stay Locked Out, Federal Stats on COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Cuomo administration won't say when nursing home visits will resume

Since 7 March 2020, the Cuomo administration has blocked family members from visiting relatives living in New York's nursing homes. Originally presented as a protective measure for nursing home residents from coronavirus infections, this policy also worked to prevent the discovery of the extent to which infected patients were being placed in these facilities to expose residents to the risk of infections in the following weeks.

Nearly 26,000 nursing home coronavirus deaths reported to feds

This Associated Press report provides partial national level data on the number of coronavirus deaths at nursing homes in the U.S. Here's an excerpt:

Federal health authorities have received reports of nearly 26,000 nursing home residents dying from COVID-19, according to materials prepared for the nation’s governors. That number is partial and likely to go higher.

A letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 60,000 cases of coronavirus illness among nursing home residents. A copy of the letter and an accompanying chart were provided to The Associated Press.

The numbers, which had been promised by the end of May, are partial. The letter said the data are based on reports received from about 80% of the nation’s 15,400 nursing homes.

The data applies only to federally regulated nursing homes, which excludes assisted living facilities regulated by state governments. The data also only covers the period through 24 May 2020 for the portion of nursing homes reporting deaths of their residents. Back on 9 May 2020, AP reported a similar figure for the nation, with New York's official nursing home death count at 5,300, but that's with the state's public health officials deliberately misclassifying the deaths of nursing home residents that occurred outside of the nursing homes where they resided when they were transferred to hospitals at the ends of their lives.

The numbers being reported by CMS will be much harder for the Cuomo administration to "cook", since they are focusing on reporting coronavirus-related deaths of people who were residing at nursing homes during the last several months.