11 February 2021: NY DOH Sneakily Established COVID-Only Nursing Homes Months After Most Needed

N.Y. quietly established 'COVID-only' nursing homes to care for recovering seniors: health commissioner

Another day, another damning admission forced out of the Cuomo administration:

In a letter to lawmakers, New York's top health official revealed that the state has quietly established 19 "COVID-only" nursing homes to care for seniors recovering from the deadly virus.

Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the state set up the facilities in November "to allow the transfer of MEDICALLY STABLE, BUT persistently positive COVID-19 nursing home eligible patients" out of hospitals.

Zucker wrote to lawmakers Wednesday, answering questions posed over six months ago, and said the sites contain a total of 1,941 beds "to meet the needs of this special population."

He did not specify where the facilities are located.

The letter, released by Senate Democrats after a closed-door meeting with Cuomo officials, also revealed that more than 15,000 long-term care residents have died of COVID-19 in the state, a dramatic number that includes seniors who died after being transferred to hospitals.

Note the month New York's DOH established these facilities: November 2020. What does it say about the quality of the Cuomo administration's leadership and management skills when they waited so long to both consider and implement an obvious policy that would minimize the risk of exposure among the state's most vulnerable population to coronavirus infections. This action is the political equivalent of closing the barn after all the horses have escaped.