April 26, 2020 | 3:42pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo doubled-down Sunday on the state’s controversial directive ordering nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients.
The governor — who has called nursing homes a “feeding frenzy” for the deadly coronavirus — said last week that the facilities can’t challenge the regulation forcing them to admit patients with the contagion. But he added that the sites could transfer those ill with COVID-19 to another facility if the centers lacked such things as quarantine space, proper protection equipment and staffers.
Asked by a reporter at his daily briefing Sunday if there was anything contradictory about his statements, the governor replied, “No.”
“A nursing home can only provide care for a patient who they believe they can provide adequate care for,” Cuomo said. “If they cannot provide adequate care for a patient, they must transfer that patient.”
He said that if the nursing home can’t find another adequate facility, it should call the state Department of Health.
“I have John, I don’t know where to send John,” Cuomo said of a possible nursing-home scenario. “Call the DOH, we’ll find a place for John. That’s how it works.”
“We have vacancies in nursing homes and facilities,” the governor said.
At least 3,500 nursing-home residents in the state have died from the coronavirus to date, including 2,000 in New York City.
On Saturday, 18 people died from the virus in nursing homes in the state, part of the grim daily total of 367, officials said.
