Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo, candidate for New York State Senate district 1, today called for an independent investigation into nursing homes deaths. Currently, one-third of the state’s coronavirus deaths have occurred in nursing homes, which are regulated by New York State and following directives from Governor Cuomo and his Department of Health.

Before this Sunday, May 10, Governor Cuomo and his Department of Health were mandating that nursing homes admit COVID-19 positive patients into their facilities. While this directive has been partially changed, it was done too late for many seniors. According to recent reports, over 5 percent of New York nursing home patients have succumbed to COVID-19.

“From the very beginning of this crisis we have known how deadly COVID-19 could be in these facilities and yet it appears that the state failed to provide essential PPE to nursing homes and instituted dangerous policies that resulted in countless deaths,” said Palumbo, “There needs to be a full and independent investigation into this disaster to determine how and why our most vulnerable New Yorkers were placed in unsafe environments with deadly results.”

Palumbo would like an independent investigation to determine what went wrong in the state’s nursing homes and what policies need to be adopted to avoid future tragedies.

“State government has an obligation to get to the bottom of how things went so horribly wrong in New York’s nursing homes and what we can do to prevent these types of tragedies in the future,” said Palumbo. “I am not calling for an investigation to cast blame. Now is not the time for that, instead, I am looking to prevent unnecessary deaths and to better protect New York’s seniors.”