Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Full Scope Of NY's Nursing Home COVID Death Toll Still Unknown
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Aug 11, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Shutterstock
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Aug 11, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Months into the COVID-19 crisis, the true death count of nursing home residents still remains unknown in New York—as residents who were transported to hospitals just before they died are not included from the total count of nursing home fatalities.
ProPublica reports that 18 nursing home residents from an upstate nursing home, the Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell, died in hospitals—all transferred with some type of do-not-resuscitate order. Such residents are not included in the Health Department's online fatality count of 12 at that facility in Columbia County.
Columbia County health director Jack Mabb told ProPublica it appeared that Barnwell had been specifically sending COVID-19 patients to the hospital "so they wouldn't die in the facility." Mabb added the do-not-resuscitate orders sent off alarms for the health officials.
"We flagged it for the state. We told the Department of Health we thought something big was going on," Mabb told ProPublica. The company that operates Barnwell denied the allegations, telling ProPublica any residents with COVID-19 who were transferred to hospitals had health care needs beyond what the nursing home could provide.
More than 6,600 people have died in nursing homes and adult care facilities in New York, including both confirmed coronavirus deaths and presumed coronavirus deaths, according to the state's official count as of August 8th.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker told state legislators during a hearing this month that the complete count of deaths has not been released to avoid double-counting deaths at nursing homes and hospitals.
State Health Department spokesperson Jill Montag said in an email after this story was published that "New York was an early leader in providing daily facility-specific information," particularly amid a lack of consistent federal standards for reporting long term care facility data. She said 15 states do not publicly release such information.
"New York is only one of 9 states that reports both confirmed and presumed in facility deaths and no one has been clearer in personalizing the human cost of the pandemic, which is why we required facilities to notify residents and families within 24 hours of any COVID case or fatality or face a penalty," Montag said.
She echoed Zucker, saying "rigorous efforts" are ongoing to ensure the accuracy of the data, but did not answer whether the state would release the full picture of fatalities, and if so, when.
But the undercount among New York's elderly and most vulnerable residents has been an issue for months. Mabb had been telling reporters of the hospital transfers at Barnwell since May, when the death toll at the facility had reached 15, according to HudsonValley360.
In early May, Gothamist found various facilities had their official counts undercounted in the state's toll.
In the Bronx, 21 residents from the Riverdale Nursing Home had died—compared to four on the state's official toll—the Associated Press found.
"It was a cascading effect," the nursing home's administrator Emil Fuzayov told the AP. "One after the other."
Cuomo has faced criticism for a March directive that required nursing homes to admit recovered coronavirus patients from hospitals, which was partially reversed in May. In response to the scrutiny, the state Health Department released a study saying the virus spread through visitors and healthcare staff, rather than from hospitalized residents.
On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said he wouldn't support an investigation into nursing homes, claiming such an investigation would be politicized.
"I think you'd have to be blind to realize it's not political," Cuomo said during a Monday press call when asked if he'd support an independent investigation.
He said New York "is all the way at the bottom of the list of states," in terms of the percentage of nursing home deaths, though it's unclear what review he was referring to.
The AP found New York had 49 deaths per 100,000 nursing home residents, compared to 34 in California and 30 in Florida, for instance—putting the state as the eleventh highest for nursing home deaths according to data as of July 26th. The governor said back in May that New York ranks 34th in the country for its percentage of nursing home COVID-19 deaths, based on a review of confirmed deaths only.
This article has been updated with comment from the state's Health Department.
Tagged
COVID-19
Governor Andrew Cuomo
coronavirus
New York State Department of Health
nursing home
Sydney Pereira
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Deer are all over New Jersey roads looking for sex, state officials warn
Mid-October through mid-December is deer mating season, which can be a danger to drivers as the sex-seeking creatures cross roadways throughout the Garden State.
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Oct 16, 2026 at 4:22 p.m. ET
Man messaged 'I got straight poison' before giving NYC college students fentanyl, feds say
A transcript from an April court hearing sheds new light on what transpired at Fashion Institute of Technology.
By
Samantha Max
News
Man messaged 'I got straight poison' before giving NYC college students fentanyl, feds say
A transcript from an April court hearing sheds new light on what transpired at Fashion Institute of Technology.
By
Samantha Max
Inside the plan to fix the nearly collapsed Pfizer Building, 1/64th of an inch at a time
By
David Brand
School bus carrying autistic students got lost in Brooklyn for 4 hours last year
By
Jessica Gould
NYC’s bridges can last 'forever,' if we take care of them
By
Clayton Guse
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .