Queens pol takes on state nursing home policy blamed for COVID-19 surge
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Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal introduced a bill that would codify an executive order preventing people who test positive for COVID-19 from being readmitted to nursing homes. Photo via Rosenthal’s Facebook
By David Brand
Flushing Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal has introduced a bill to permanently reverse a state directive that critics say hastened the spread of the coronavirus inside nursing homes, where at least 5,300 people have died from COVID-19.
Despite the devastating impact of the illness on older adults, the state ordered nursing homes to readmit residents who had tested positive for COVID-19 if they were cleared by hospital staff. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order Sunday reversing his administration’s policy.
Rosenthal called on the state Tuesday to make that order a permanent part of state law.
“Previous guidance exposed many seniors and essential workers to preventable risk,” Rosenthal said. “By codifying this common sense legislation we ensure that we are taking permanent action to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our elderly and infirm populations.”
Nursing home staff and residents account for nearly a quarter of all COVID-19 deaths in New York, according to state Health Department data. At least 484 people have died of COVID-19 at nursing homes in Queens as of May 12, including 75 residents at one site in Glen Oaks.
Rosenthal said Wednesday that nursing home residents who tested positive for COVID-19 should have been moved into separate transitional facilities, including temporary sites like the Javits Center field hospital.
Cuomo’s aide Richard Azzopardi told Newsday that under the new executive order, COVID-19 patients will be released to specific facilities set up by the state to serve people who have had the illness.
Rosenthal’s colleague, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, has called for an independent investigation into state nursing home policies and the mounting death toll.
“There needs to be independent review of what’s going on with COVID-19 and nursing homes, especially in the context of decades of problems with nursing homes in New York and Health Department protection of nursing home residents,” Gottfried told the New York Post.
