14 March 2021: Governor Cuomo's Disabled Group Home COVID Scandal Mirrors Nursing Home Scandal

EXCLUSIVE: Coronavirus infects 10,311 New York group home workers, killing 32

This report digs into how Governor Cuomo's COVID policies for group homes housing disabled New Yorkers contributed to the spread of COVID infections among both residents and staffs.

The coronavirus infected 10,311 care workers, killing 32, who are forced to staff New York state group homes with a practice of co-mingling healthy and sick residents, according to a Washington Examiner investigation.

According to multiple whistleblowers who spoke with the Washington Examiner, employees were deceived, intimidated, and threatened into staffing infectious facilities within New York's 7,000-home network, which had the same policies as Gov. Andrew Cuomo's nursing homes. New, infected residents were allowed into healthy homes, but the disease was spread throughout the network by staff who rotated in and out of infected homes.

The New York Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, which operates the group homes, also reported 552 resident deaths and 6,382 infections as of March 10. Care statistics were provided to the Washington Examiner in an email Friday.

The Cuomo administration's policies for these group homes are nearly identical to those that applied to New York's nursing homes from 25 March 2020 through 10 May 2020. The main differences are:

1. Nursing homes housed a more vulnerable population (the sick and elderly) than the disabled group homes, which explains why their death tolls are so much higher.
2. The Cuomo administration's policies contributing to the circulation of COVID infections within New York's disabled group homes are still in effect.