When state health offficials refused to release their own numbers, New York-based investigative reporter Bernard Condon and fellow New York reporters Jim Mustian and Jennifer Peltz conducted their own AP count, finding more than 4,500 recovering coronavirus patients were released from hospitals into New York State nursing homes under a controversial state order that was later scrapped amid criticism that it accelerated the nation’s deadliest outbreaks. AP’s story on the count received strong play, and at his news briefing the next day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo deflected questions about the AP tally.
AP counts 4,500+ virus patients sent to NY nursing homes
Emergency medical workers wheel a patient into Cobble Hill Health Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, April 17, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo