Cuomo roasted for boastful ‘government competence’ tweet as New York nursing home Covid-19 deaths surge

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is under fire for a tweet about government competence after the death toll from Covid-19 in New York’s nursing homes dramatically spiked.

Cuomo thirstily grabbed the mantle of mainstream media darling as the coronavirus crisis unfolded; however, as the outbreak rumbled on, several aspects of his state’s response have been called into question, not least the escalating number of deaths in nursing homes.

State health officials this week added 1,700 previously undisclosed nursing home deaths to the official fatality count, increasing the confirmed total to approximately 5,000. 

The unraveling disaster has led to scrutiny of Cuomo’s handling of the situation, with an edict requiring nursing homes to accept Covid-19 patients, despite being filled with vulnerable, elderly patients, attracting scathing criticism.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing scathing criticism. © Global Look Press/Keystone Press Agency

Anger about the shambles has found expression in blistering responses to a message Cuomo posted to Twitter that read: “Government competence can be the difference between life and death.”

“Yep. 1,700 more dead senior citizens thanks to you saying they had to go back to nursing homes,” Radio host Tony Bruno responded. “Thousands of NYers who were slaughtered in nursing homes found this out in recent weeks,” another scorching response read.

Actor James Woods added his own pithy analysis and it quickly racked up over 12,000 likes. “This takes some balls... #NursingHomeDeaths,” he wrote. 

New York is the global epicenter of the pandemic with more than 25,000 people in the state falling victim to the virus. A further 54,597 people are recorded as having recovered from the disease.

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