Democrats who control the state Senate blocked a motion Monday to subpoena records of the Cuomo administration seeking a fuller accounting of nursing home residents who died from the coronavirus.
The motion was made by Sen. Thomas O’Mara, the ranking Republican on the Investigations Committee panel during a virtual meeting
The GOP motion to compel the state Health Department to release records came just days after Attorney General Letitia James issued a blistering report that found Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his health agency withheld an accurate count of the number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 by some 50 percent by excluding residents who died after being take to hospitals.
Hours after the damning report was issued, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who had been accused of stonewalling, gave a more detailed accounting, saying 12,743 nursing home residents had died from COVID-19 as of January 19. That figure was about 4,000 more nursing home resident deaths than previously reported — confirming the attorney general’s finding.
But O’Mara claimed there’s more information to be had “to make sure we get to the bottom” of the COVID-19 nursing home tally…
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