Cuomo reportedly told officials to prioritize Covid testing for some relatives, powerful people

Source: NBC News

March 25, 2021 at 10:16

A Cuomo aide told The Albany Times Union the situation was being "distorted" with "devious intent," adding the testing was done "in good faith in an effort to trace the virus."

By Rebecca Shabad

WASHINGTON — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s health commissioner last year instructed state health officials to prioritize Covid-19 testing for some of the governor’s relatives and powerful people with ties to his administration, according to The Albany Times Union.

Top health department officials conducted Covid-19 tests for Cuomo’s brother, Chris, a CNN anchor, as well as their mother and at least one of their sisters, often at private residences, the report said, citing three people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Priority testing was also given to the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Patrick Foye, and the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Rick Cotton, and his wife, the report said. Members of the media, state legislators and their staff were also tested.

Administration officials said the testing early in the pandemic was not preferential, noting public nurses were being dispatched to test those who were symptomatic in New Rochelle, the location of the state's first outbreak.

"It's being a little bit distorted with, like, a devious intent. ... We made sure to test people they believed were exposed," an aide in Cuomo's office told The Times Union. "All of this was being done in good faith in an effort to trace the virus."

A senior aide to Cuomo, Richard Azzopardi, called the allegations "insincere efforts to rewrite the past."

"In the early days of this pandemic, when there was a heavy emphasis on contact tracing, we were absolutely going above and beyond to get people testing — including in some instances going to people’s homes, and door-to-door in places like New Rochelle — to take samples from those believed to have been exposed to Covid in order to identify cases and prevent additional ones," Azzopardi told the newspaper. "Among those we assisted were members of the general public, including legislators, reporters, state workers and their families who feared they had contracted the virus and had the capability to further spread it.”