White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the Justice Department will decide whether an investigation is warranted into Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s role in the death of COVID-19 in nursing homes.
According to a Thursday report from Attorney General Letitia James in New York City, Cuomo’s government has likely underestimated the bleak toll in nursing homes by about 50 percent.
The death toll was triggered by a March order from the Department of Health requiring nursing homes to admit coronavirus-positive patients.
A reporter asked Psaki during a White House briefing, “Would President Biden support a federal investigation into what happened and the role of Governor Andrew Cuomo?”
Psaki said, ‘I’ve seen those reports. I would say any investigation, I would refer to the Justice Department. “
Under pressure from the reporter whether the White House believes further review is warranted, Psaki said: “Again, any investigation would be led by the Justice Department. We are in a new age where they are independent and they will determine which path they will take. “
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The attorney general looked at data from 62 nursing homes and found 1,914 residents died from COVID-19 – 56 percent more than the 1,229 reported by the state.
The data suggests the New York nursing home death toll could be more than 13,000. The official state figures are 8,711 and do not count that patients were taken to a hospital before their death.
James’s report would mean that nearly a third of the more than 42,000 coronavirus deaths in New York City were related to nursing homes, undermining Cuomo’s claim to effectively manage the crisis.
New York still has the highest death toll in the US from the respiratory bug, which disproportionately takes the lives of the elderly. The second highest number of deaths is in California, with fewer than 40,000 deaths, although California has more than twice as many COVID-19 diagnoses.
The Justice Department under former President Donald Trump looked at the situation in nursing homes in New York. In October, The Post reported that the Justice Department was demanding more information from the state after an initial assessment of the data indicated there was a significant under-rating.
Federal sources told The Post that an initial federal evaluation of two dozen state-run nursing homes in New York found that about 400 residents died from COVID-19, a third more than the approximately 300 deaths reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. were announced.