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Cuomo reverses directive; hospitals barred from discharging COVID-positive patients to nursing homes

Governor Cuomo announced that hospitals could no longer discharge patients to New York nursing homes unless the patient tested negative, reversing the March 25 DOH advisory, and simultaneously ordered twice-weekly diagnostic testing of nursing-home staff. By then, more than 5,300 New York nursing-home residents had died according to an AP tally, and the state had recently disclosed roughly 1,700 previously unreported deaths at nursing homes and adult-care facilities.

Primary quotes

Other
“We're just not going to send a person who is positive to a nursing home after hospital visit. Period.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, May 10, 2020

Linked sources

Cuomo Reverses Nursing Home Directive to Take COVID-19 Patients, Requires More Staff Testing (NBC New York)
Tier 3 · news · May 10, 2020 reversal announcement
AP count: More than 4,500 recovering COVID-19 patients sent to NY nursing homes (AP)
Tier 3 · news · May 21, 2020 tally; quotes the March 25 directive verbatim

Related contentions

Did admission directives seed COVID-19 into nursing homes — and was the toll obscured?

Unresolved. The 50% undercount is confirmed by the NY AG, but the directive's causal share of nursing-home deaths was never adjudicated — the AG said only that it 'may have' increased risk, and DOJ declined CRIPA investigations in 2021; later data analyses (staffing levels, staff transmission) are cited by both sides without consensus.