The exact number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 in New York is still unknown. And despite consistent pressure from lawmakers, that question still has not ben answered. 

Republican Sens. James Tedisco and Senator Sue Serino wrote a letter to four Democratic Senators who have been working to secure answers from the Department of Health. 

On August 20, over four weeks ago, Sens. Gustavo Rivera, James Skoufis, Senator Rachel May, and Simcha Felder sent a letter to the state Health Department with a list of questions that were not answered during a legislative hearing. 

This letter gave the Health Department three weeks to respond, but it has now been almost five weeks. 

"Have you received any response from the DOH?" the letter questions. 

"If so, we ask that you make the department’s answers public. The lack of transparency on the part of the DOH in response to your inquiry is very troubling and indicative of a potential cover-up. History has shown that the cover-up is often worse than what’s being covered-up."

The exact number of nursing home residents in New York who died from COVID-19 during the pandemic is still unknown.

If you ask the state, their official number puts the death toll at a little over 6,600 nursing home residents.

This is because, if a nursing home resident contracted COVID-19, but passed away in a hospital, it is counted as a hospital death, not as a nursing home death.

However, health experts from around the state place this number closer to 10,000.

The letter then continues asking that the Senate majority subpoena for this information. 

"If you have not received direct responses to your questions, we respectfully ask that you now use your authority as Committee Chairs to subpoena the Commissioner and DOH to finally provide these answers, in particular, for a full breakdown of how many people died from COVID-19 within our nursing homes and how many contracted the virus in nursing homes but were transferred to hospitals where they later lost their lives."

Serino is running against Karen Smythe for the 41st Senate seat.