New York to test nursing home staff twice a week as one third of US coronavirus deaths linked to facilities

New York will test all nursing home staff for Covid-19 twice per week, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday, as new figures show residents and workers at senior living facilities account for nearly a third of coronavirus deaths nationwide.

"All nursing home staff must now be tested for COVID twice a week," Mr Cuomo tweeted on Sunday. "This rule is not optional — it’s mandatory," the Empire State governor said.

New York has more Covid-19 deaths in nursing home facilities than any other state in the country, with 5,215 people dying from the disease, recent data from the Kaiser Family Foundation found.

The nursing home death figure represents 20 per cent of the state's overall death toll from Covid-19. That rate is even more disproportionate for other states.

Thirty-five per cent of coronavirus deaths in the US are among people who work or live in senior living facilities, according to data collected by the New York Times and published on Sunday.

The Times included nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, memory care facilities, retirement and senior communities and rehabilitation facilities in its senior living facilities data.

In 15 states, people in senior living facilities comprised 50 per cent or more of the total who have died from the disease.

In Pennsylvania, for instance, two out of every three people who have died from Covid-19 lived or worked in senior living facilities, per the Times analysis. That's 2,518 of the 3,416 who have died in the state.

In Minnesota, 449 people in senior living facilities have died from coronavirus, which represents 78 per cent of the total Covid-19 death toll in the state.

While experts hope measures like Mr Cuomo's biweekly testing mandate, billions of dollars in congressional outlays for health care systems, and recent federal reporting requirements can help stem the tide of coronavirus cases in senior living facilities, the American Health Care Association, the trade association for most nursing homes in the US, says state and federal lawmakers still have much more to do.

It is not too late to make an enormous difference in the outcome of the COVID-19 battle in America’s long term care facilities. The best public health policy is to focus where the battle is taking place, which is now most prevalent in nursing homes and assisted living communities across the country," the AHCA wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Peter Gaynor last week.

The trade group has asked the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to expand priority testing to all residents and caregivers of nursing homes and assisted living communities regardless of symptoms; FEMA to expedite shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE) to senior living facilities; and an additional $10bn in relief funding from HHS to pay for staffing, testing, and PPE.

More than 70 per cent of the AHCA's long term care affiliates have been unable to find sufficient PPE supplies, like masks, gowns and face shields, and are facing shortages, the group wrote.

"Without adequate funding, testing and supplies, long term care facilities will not be able to overcome this unprecedented health crisis and protect our residents and caregivers," the AHCA wrote.

Meanwhile, some governors, including Mr Cuomo, have become the target of derision for decisions that have exacerbated the crisis in nursing homes.

A directive from the governor requires nursing homes that are not at capacity to take on new patients who tested positive for Covid-19, which many people believe has led to more deaths among residents who may otherwise not have been exposed to the virus.

The New York Post's conservative editorial board over the weekend echoed calls for a "truly independent probe of coronavirus devastation in [New York] nursing homes."

Mr Cuomo's own investigation, "which he handpicked protégé Letitia James to lead, plainly won’t get to the bottom of many key issues," including the governor's mandate for nursing homes to put up new patients, the Post editorial board wrote.​

Mr Cuomo has acknowledged that nursing homes are being decimated by the disease, though he has not taken any ownership over the grisly death statistics there.

“We’ve tried everything to keep it out of a nursing home, but it’s virtually impossible,” the governor told reporters over the weekend. “Now is not the best time to put your mother in a nursing home. That is a fact.”