Gov. Hochul begins promised review of NY's COVID-19 response

ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced the start of a “Pandemic After-Action Review,” which will examine New York’s response to the pandemic, including deaths in nursing homes.

The Democrat had been under pressure recently to launch the process after promising to do so in May. She has been in office since August, taking over following Andrew M. Cuomo’s resignation amid sexual harassment accusations.

Hochul said the state will issue a “request for proposals” to hire an independent auditor to review an array of state actions. Once hired, the auditor’s preliminary findings won’t be due for six months — pushing it into next year and well past Election Day in November.

A final report would be due in a year.

The review will look at the state’s pandemic response, strengths and weaknesses of its preparation, factors for determining what businesses and functions should be considered essential during a health emergency, worker protections and future guidelines.

It will also review the controversial Cuomo directive, issued in March 2020, that required nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients back from hospitals — a decision that some say increased the number of deaths of residents.

"We're going to be covering the transfer policies related to medical procedures and hospitals,” Hochul said. “And patient facilities. The transfer of individuals, vulnerable populations into congregate settings, homeless shelters, group homes, nursing homes, jails, prisons, and how efficient the infection controls were in those settings.”

Hochul, who easily won the Democratic gubernatorial primary last month, has been criticized by Republicans for not jump-starting the promised review earlier.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), the Republican candidate, on Wednesday accused Hochul of “dragging her feet” to push the review past the election.

Though Hochul was lieutenant governor under Cuomo, she has pointed out she was not a member of the former governor’s inner circle and was not involved then with the state’s pandemic response.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy