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Nursing home residents in New York City have been dramatically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, suffering an outsize death toll.
As of April 13, 4.8% of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 deaths took place in a nursing home, long-term care facility or hospice, but the percentage of probable COVID deaths in those places is as high as 17.8%, according to data released by the city.
To get a better sense of how many additional people died from COVID-19 that were not included in laboratory-confirmed counts, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday that the state would start contacting nursing home facilities to find out if there are more uncounted people who have died of coronavirus outside of a nursing home or hospital setting.
His announcement comes on the heels of New York City’s decision Tuesday to measure “probable COVID-19” deaths in addition to confirmed cases. The city’s death toll subsequently surged past 10,000, with more than 3,700 deaths added in a single day.
“There is a sense that there may be additional people who passed away,” Cuomo said. “And they weren’t included in the count because they weren’t in a hospital, they weren’t in a nursing home.”
The governor also issued an executive order requiring nursing homes to inform family members of residents of positive COVID-19 cases and deaths within 24 hours, making previous guidance mandatory.
Also on MarketWatch: Blacks, Latinos in NYC disproportionately fall victim to coronavirus
Stephen Hanse, president and CEO of the New York State Health Facilities Association—which represents more than 450 nursing homes and assisted living providers—said they are coping with staffing shortages, limited coronavirus testing and a lack of personal protective equipment. There is also a concern that COVID-19 will continue to devastate nursing home facilities, even as the infection rate plateaus citywide.
“There’s a real concern that as the infection rate decreases in the hospitals, it won’t simultaneously decrease in long-term care facilities,” Hanse said.
ICU admission and intubation rates are down statewide, according to the governor, who added that on Tuesday, 752 people died from the coronavirus, 707 of whom were in hospitals, and 45 of whom were in nursing homes. That number does not include “probable” coronavirus deaths.
“The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) changed guidelines on how they want information reported,” Cuomo said, mentioning probable deaths. “We’re going to rationalize those new reporting requirements with local governments and get that information out as soon as we can.”
The governor declined to give new cumulative death toll totals for New York at the Wednesday news conference, and his office did not respond to follow up questions from MarketWatch.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke about counting “probable death” numbers in New York City.
“A lot of these deaths, the folks who were with these people, the medical professionals at the time, they couldn’t confirm it was COVID because there wasn’t time to do a test or they didn’t have a test available, but they thought that’s what it was,” he said. “And we should be honest about the full extent of this, and that bluntly should inspire us to really get it right.”
Funeral directors in New York City told MarketWatch earlier this month that they were collecting bodies from nursing homes of people who likely died of coronavirus, but were not recorded as such.
Also see: Wheels are in motion for widespread coronavirus antibody testing in New York
Limited testing has been a major problem both in New York and nationwide. Mayor de Blasio announced Tuesday that New York City will begin to manufacture its own coronavirus test kits, and produce 50,000 test kits a week by the beginning of May.
