AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
disabled-homes
NEW YORK (77WABC) – Governor Cuomo ordered homes for people with developmental disabilities to accept coronavirus patients and has yet to rescind the order.
An October study by the National Library of Medicine found that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in group homes had a Covid-19 case rate approximately FOUR TIMES HIGHER than the overall state population.
The April 10th directive, which mirrored the Cuomo administration’s controversial regarding nursing homes, also required that homes for people with developmental disabilities could NOT require hospitalized residents to be tested for coronavirus prior to admission or readmission.
More than 6,900 people out of the more than 34,552 who live in such resident homes have been infected with the virus, according to the New York Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). 552 pf those residents succumbed to the virus.
Republican members of the Senate Disabilities and Mental Health Committees — Senators Michael Martucci, Fred Akshar, Anthony Palumbo and James Tedisco — recently sent a letter to Dr. Theodore Kastner, Commissioner of New York State Office of People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). The letter outlined several concerns raised over the State’s inadequate COVID response and failure to protect New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in group homes during the pandemic, and called on the agency or the Governor’s office to provide updated information related to COVID infections and deaths in group homes.
