Excerpt:
“Patients will die,” an unidentified administrator declared, according to a recording of the March 21, 2020 meeting first reported by NJ Advance Media. “You understand that by asking us to take COVID patients, by demanding we take COVID patients, that patients will die in nursing homes that wouldn’t have otherwise died had we screened them out.”
About 8,000 COVID-19 deaths — roughly 40 percent of New Jersey’s 21,000 COVID-19 deaths — trace back to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. On March 31, Murphy’s administration directed nursing homes to re-admit residents who had been discharged from hospitals while recovering from COVID-19.
While Persichilli’s guidance also directed nursing homes to house these residents in a separate wing, in order to avoid infecting other patients, many nursing home administrators warned that such separation would be incomplete and would fail to prevent the spread of the virus.
Author(s): Tyler O’Neil
Publication Date: 15 March 2021
Publication Site: PJ Media