North Country Sen. Joe Griffo, R-Rome, is among a group of state Republican lawmakers calling for an investigation into the state’s response to a high coronavirus death toll in state-regulated nursing homes.

“Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his Department of Health have mandated that nursing homes admit COVID-19 positive patients into their facilities, a directive that has imported the virus into places that house New York’s most vulnerable,” a news release from the State Senate Republican Conference claims.

In addition to an independent investigation, Griffo and Senate Republicans called for an immediate change in policy to create regionally based specialty long-term care facilities for COVID-19 positive nursing home residents.

“The state, under fire for nursing home deaths, launched an investigation to be conducted by the state’s Attorney General and the Department of Health even though the Department of Health is directly involved in creating directives,” the senators’ news release said.

“Nursing homes have been on the front lines of caring for New York’s vulnerable patients and we knew since the first outbreak in the state of Washington that coronavirus spreads like wildfire among the elderly. Yet, the state refuses to listen to nursing homes, families, and elected officials calling for coronavirus patients to be treated at separate facilities, or for these homes to administer the same experimental COVID-19 drugs as hospitals. It is unconscionable and they cannot investigate their own actions,” Griffo said in a prepared statement.

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