UES Nursing Home Had 51 Unreported COVID Deaths, New Data Shows

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — New data shows that the coronavirus has taken an even more severe toll on New York's nursing homes than the state's past disclosures had indicated — including dozens of previously unreported deaths at facilities on the Upper East Side.

The updated data released by the state's health department Saturday now includes nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 at hospitals, in addition to deaths that occurred in each facility.

Upper East Side Rehabilitation and Nursing Center had 51 residents die from COVID-19 in hospitals — the most such deaths of any facility in the state, according to the data.

The East 79th Street facility has lost at least 80 residents to the virus — a major jump from the state's previous official total, which showed just 29 deaths there.

The center did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

The new disclosures about a week after Attorney General Letitia James released a report alleging that Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration had undercounted thousands of nursing home deaths, in part because the state was not counting residents who died in hospitals.

Here is the data for nursing home deaths on or near the Upper East Side, through Feb. 4:

Upper East Side Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (211 East 79th St.):

• Out-of-facility deaths among residents (hospital or other): 51
• Confirmed COVID-19 deaths at nursing home: 18
• Presumed COVID-19 deaths at nursing home: 11
• Total deaths: 80

Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center (1249 Fifth Ave.):

• Out-of-facility deaths among residents (hospital or other): 23
• Confirmed COVID-19 deaths at nursing home: 24
• Presumed COVID-19 deaths at nursing home: 9
• Total deaths: 56

Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home (1339 York Ave.):

• Out-of-facility deaths among residents (hospital or other): 2
• Confirmed COVID-19 deaths at nursing home: 34
• Presumed COVID-19 deaths at nursing home: 4
• Total deaths: 40

Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center (900 Main St., Roosevelt Island):

• Out-of-facility deaths among residents (hospital or other): 17
• Confirmed COVID-19 deaths at nursing home: 13
• Presumed COVID-19 deaths at nursing home: 1
• Total deaths: 31

After James's report was released on Jan. 28, Cuomo's health commissioner, Howard Zucker, defended the state's practices, noting that the more than 4,000 nursing home residents who died in hospitals were already included in the state's overall count.

Then, last Thursday, a state judge ordered the Department of Health to release data on in-hospital deaths among nursing home residents. Two days later, the state added those deaths to its totals, bringing the official death toll at New York's nursing homes to more than 13,000.