State officials, who regulate nursing homes, said the department would provide information about the death toll and the extent of the coronavirus’ spread inside Sapphire and all 613 nursing homes as soon as it was able to validate the data. In Suffolk County, on Long Island, nearly half of all deaths from the coronavirus involved nursing homes or assisted-living facilities. Families are caught in a vacuum of information, barred from visiting, and nursing homes have a financial incentive to provide only the most benign view of what is happening behind their closed doors. On Thursday, Gov Andrew Cuomo, responding to the outcry of families, promised an executive order requiring nursing homes to inform relatives about COVID-19 infections and deaths in the facilities. Enella, he said, defended the quality of care and told Kim that there were 29 deaths there, one of the highest totals in the region so far.

Source: bd News24 April 17, 2020 08:15 UTC