The Department of Justice is requesting information from states requiring nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients who, according to the ministry, “could have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.” The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is also investigating whether to initiate investigations under the Federal Civil Rights Act for institutionalized individuals.
In New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, state governors have issued ordinances that prevent retirement homes from denying access to COVID-19 patients, despite vulnerable populations in retirement homes.
But New York that his movements did not violate the federal government’s own guidelines.
A March 13 memorandum from the Centers for Disease Control says: “A nursing home would likely settle for a resident diagnosed with COVID-19 and even under COVID19 transmission precautions as long as the facility can comply with CDC rules for transmission-based precautions. .
The total number of deaths in nursing homes in New York is still unclear and the state only counts citizens who died as nursing home owners, so the state did not count those who were transported and died in hospitals. As a result, deaths in New York’s COVID-19 care homes would account for 20% of their total COVID-19 deaths, although they may be particularly higher.
In May, New York also reported more than 1,700 un revealed deaths in the past at retirement homes and other adult care facilities.
“Protecting the rights of some of the most vulnerable members of society, by adding the elderly citizens of retirement homes, is one of our country’s greatest vital obligations,” Deputy Civil Rights Attorney Eric Dreiband said in a statement. “We will have to make sure that they are well cared for with dignity and respect and that they are not in unnecessary danger.”
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division needs to determine whether state orders requiring the readmission of COVID-19 patients are guilty of the deaths of some nursing home residents.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has found that states have several inconsistent reporting regulations for reporting coVID-19 deaths in service residences. The actual number of deaths in nursing homes in the United States remains uncertain.