Dan Clark

New York state could require nursing homes to spend a certain amount of their revenue on direct patient care, mandate transparent reporting of COVID-19 deaths of residents at those facilities, and more under a package of bills passed by the State Senate Monday.

The legislation is the result of a pair of public hearings on the state’s handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes last summer, coupled with new revelations about the Cuomo administration.

There’s a consensus among Democrats in the State Assembly that action must be taken against the Cuomo administration for withholding information on COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters Monday.

Heastie made the remarks after Democrats in the Assembly met for six hours Monday to discuss next steps, including a potential removal of Cuomo’s emergency pandemic powers.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is amending his proposal to legalize marijuana for adult, recreational use in New York to allow delivery of cannabis products, reduce criminal penalties for illegal sales, and outline how a portion of tax revenue from the industry would be spent.

Support for ending Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s emergency law-making powers, granted to him by the Legislature to handle the COVID-19 pandemic, appears to be growing after news reports revealed that his top aides withheld key nursing home data from lawmakers last year.

Lawmakers are now arguing that the revelation should merit immediate action from the Legislature, albeit the preferred course varies depending on who you ask.

About one in every 10 New Yorkers has now received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the federal government is expected to boost the state’s supply of the injection over the next three weeks, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

Cuomo, who was on a call with the Biden administration Tuesday morning, said the federal government is planning to boost the state’s vaccine supply by 5% over the next three weeks.

State lawmakers in New York voted to repeal a part of state law Tuesday that’s become known as the ‘Walking While Trans Ban,’ a part of the penal code that’s been used to target transgender individuals under the guise of curbing prostitution.

Restaurant workers, taxi drivers, and developmentally disabled people living in congregate settings will now be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday, as long as local governments allow them to be added to the list.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has vetoed legislation that would have required the state to review access to high-speed internet, or broadband, in New York, and study the affordability and reliability of those services, saying he’ll propose a similar measure in the coming weeks.

Cuomo had until the end of the month to act on the bill, which had near-unanimous support in the state Legislature, but let it die in the form of a pocket veto.

Black hospital workers have been less likely than those of other races to take the COVID-19 vaccine when offered, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday, which he expects to be reflected in statewide demographic data that’s set to be released this week.

New York may be undercounting the number of COVID-19 deaths linked to nursing homes by as much as 50%, state Attorney General Letitia James said Friday, meaning the state’s current count of about 9,000 fatalities at those facilities may be far from the actual number.

The report also found that lack of compliance by nursing homes on infection control protocols, and a lack of staff per patient, may have contributed to higher fatality rates.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said Monday that negotiations are underway with the Senate and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on potential tax increases on the wealthy in New York, and that lawmakers could still return to Albany before the end of the year to act on such a measure.

Heastie, D-Bronx, said it would be ideal to approve tax hikes on the rich before the start of the year instead of waiting to address the issue as part of the state budget in March.

New York state could place new limits on indoor dining if hospitalization rates from COVID-19 don’t stabilize over the next five days, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday, marking another phase in the latest surge of the virus.

In the case of New York City, indoor dining could be shut down altogether, Cuomo said, while it could be capped at 25% capacity in other areas of the state.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned Sunday that several areas of the state could face new COVID-19 restrictions this week after the positivity rates in those areas remained relatively high over the weekend and continued to increase in some cases, according to state data.

Part of Manhattan, Staten Island, Rochester, Syracuse, and Long Island could face new, or stronger, restrictions if the positivity rates in those areas don’t decline in the coming days.

Democrats have all but clinched a supermajority in the State Senate after declaring victory in another seat Friday, bringing the total number of seats controlled by the party in the chamber to at least 41 at the beginning of next year’s legislative session.

Democrats need 42 seats in the chamber to hold a supermajority, which would give them the rare power of overturning a veto from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s also a Democrat.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, members of the state Legislature, and judges in New York will not receive a pay raise next year due to the state’s $14 billion budget shortfall heading into 2021, according to a report issued Monday by a state panel tasked with evaluating those salaries.

The decision wasn’t a surprise; the same panel declined to provide raises to the state’s judges last year when the budget deficit was less than half what it is now.

President Donald Trump said Friday that the federal government will delay delivery of a COVID-19 vaccine to New York state because of critical comments made by Gov. Andrew Cuomo about the federal plan for distributing that inoculation.

Trump said the federal government will wait to send the vaccine to New York until Cuomo says the state “is ready for it,” and criticized Cuomo’s attacks on the federal distribution plan.

State lawmakers have no plans to return to Albany — either in-person or virtually — before the start of next year’s legislative session, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in an interview Thursday.

Stewart-Cousins, D-Westchester, said on WCNY’s The Capitol Pressroom that Democrats don’t intend to reconvene until January, when the incoming class of state lawmakers is sworn in.

New York reported the largest one-day jump in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 since April on Tuesday, with the state’s positivity rate breaking 3% amidst a significant uptick of the virus not seen since the spring.

The number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 also reached a new high in the latest wave of the virus, with nearly 4,000 cases reported Tuesday — the most since early May.

Onondaga County officials reported 149 new cases of the coronavirus Friday, smashing the previous record for the highest number of cases in a single day since the pandemic began. 

County Executive Ryan McMahon said during a briefing Friday there are now 49 people hospitalized, with six in critical condition.  There are now 709 active cases in the county. 

Proponents of legalizing marijuana for adult use in New York were handed good news Thursday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said the state’s massive budget deficit heading into next year will likely be a catalyst for the drug’s legalization in the coming months.

"I think this year it is ripe because the state is going to be desperate for funding. Even with Biden, even with the stimulus, we're still going to need funding,” Cuomo said. "I think we're going to get there this year."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo claimed Monday that the Trump administration was seeking to use information related to recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine to target undocumented individuals for deportation, but a federal agency says the data wouldn’t be used for that purpose.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in a document sent to the nation’s governors, said that data would be used solely for tracking vaccine administration.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo charged Sunday that the Trump administration’s plan to distribute and allocate a vaccine for COVID-19 will not adequately serve communities of color, which were already hit harder by the virus at its peak in New York.

[Listen to the entirety of the teleconference from November 1, 2020]

Cuomo, who was joined by Attorney General Letitia James and leaders from the NAACP and the National Urban League, said the current plan would leave those communities behind.

Hospitalizations in New York due to COVID-19 have more than doubled over the last month, with the state reporting more than 1,000 hospitalizations due to the virus Friday for the first time in four months.

Hospitalizations were up to 1,023 on Thursday, according to data released by Gov. Andrew Cuomo Friday. Exactly one month ago Friday, hospitalizations were at 490 in New York.

New details emerged Sunday on how health officials in New York could administer a future vaccine for COVID-19, with essential workers and high-risk individuals slated to receive the injection first, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Individuals living in areas with a high prevalence of the virus would receive the vaccine first, according to a draft plan shown by Cuomo during a press conference in New York City.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new book was released Tuesday, and simultaneously serves as a definitive chronicle of decisions made by officials in New York to address the COVID-19 pandemic and a sharp rebuke to the federal government’s perceived failure to act.

Cuomo’s noted, more than once, that the book is not a signal that the pandemic is over, but a retelling of the height of the crisis in New York, where the virus has killed more than 33,000.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is not planning to make any “irreversible” cuts to the state budget over the next month after hopes of a relief package from the federal government were dashed this week when simulus talks stalled between President Donald Trump and Congress.

Trump, in a series of tweets Tuesday, said he wanted to pause negotiations on a federal stimulus package, including aid for state and local governments, until after Election Day.

New York state will implement a new series of restrictions in areas of the state that have experienced spikes in the COVID-19 infection rate in recent weeks, including new limits on houses of worship, nonessential businesses and schools.

The plan, announced in Albany by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will divide those hotspots into three categories, each of which vary in the severity of those restrictions.

Local governments in New York could be fined up to $10,000 per day by the state Department of Health if they don’t enforce the agency’s guidelines concerning COVID-19 precautions and protection, like cracking down on mass gatherings and people not wearing masks.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that the Department of Health would be sending a letter to municipalities warning them of the fine if they don’t ramp up enforcement.

"If the local governments don't step up the compliance, they will actually be in violation of the law and they can be fined," Cuomo said.

New York state has launched a new app that will tell its users when they’ve been in close contact with individuals who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 by using bluetooth technology with other users who download the service, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.

The application does not collect any personal information, or identifying information, from its users, and instead only tracks other users who you’ve come in contact with.