New York state governor Andrew Cuomo finds himself in hot water as more people are joining in on the call for an independent investigation into his controversial orders, which might have resulted in the high death count among the nursing homes in his state. More Democrats are joining the Republicans’ call for an independent investigation into Cuomo’s questionable orders which contributed to the death toll suffered in nursing homes across New York, which experts now put at 5,300.

At the center of the scandal was an order from Cuomo back in March which prohibited testing patients who came from hospitals. The order might have resulted in exposing thousands of residents in nursing home facilities to the virus, as they were mixed with patients who were infected. The order specifically stated that nursing homes are “prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”

The New York State Department just admitted that it changed the way it reported coronavirus deaths which greatly affected the numbers associated with the virus. 1,700 deaths, which occurred in nursing homes that have been unreported previously, was added to the total number of cases. A tally made by the Associated Press placed the total number of deaths in nursing homes at around 5,300. It has been reported that the number of deaths in elderly care facilities throughout the state has been on the rise for several weeks now.

The governor is also under scrutiny for last-minute insertions into the state’s budget bill which gave some unusual protection to the operators of nursing homes. The budget bill that was approved on the 2nd of April actually protected nursing homes from any legal action should they prevent nursing home residents from contracting the coronavirus. Allegedly, the insertions to the bill followed intense lobbying from representatives of the nursing home companies.

Others see Cuomo’s earlier order as a way to ensure that nursing homes get a steady stream of new residents, while the insertion to the bill was a way of protecting those same nursing homes in case the residents do get infected.