Edited by: TJVNews.com

Having been criticized for collaborating with former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in covering up the true numbers of coronavirus deaths of nursing home residents, state health commissioner Howard Zucker on Thursday extended plaudits to Governor Kathy Hochul for her policy of advocating transparency in releasing public data.

According to a report in the New York Post, Zucker said, ““I’m thrilled Gov. Kathy Hochul has taken the helm in the state … Her leadership allowing me and all of DOH to get the data out is refreshing. And her commitment as she has said to transparency is revitalizing,” Zucker said.

On her first day as governor, Kathy Hochul reported that the exact count of those who died of the Covid virus in the state was actually an additional 12,000 people than Cuomo and his team reported.  Fox News indicated that New York now reports nearly 55,400 people have died of Covid-19 in the state based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC. That number is up from about 43,400 that Cuomo had reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office.

The Post reported that Zucker made these remarks before the planning committee of the Health Department approved an emergency order that would mandate that 450,000 health workers to get the Covid vaccine. If they do not, they can risk being terminated from their positions.

Zucker’s remarks sparked the ire of family advocates for nursing homes. They claim that is disingenuous posturing as a champion of date reporting is totally unacceptable, considering that he played a role in covering up the actual numbers of those who died of the dreaded virus while in nursing homes.

In January, a report was released by New York State Attorney General Letitia James that found that Cuomo and his team had intentionally fudged the numbers of those nursing home residents whose lives were snuffed out by the Covid virus. The report scrutinized the March 25, 2020 order from Cuomo and company that mandated that nursing homes accept Covid patients from hospitals.

The Post reported that the tally released by team Cuomo had only included residents who died in nursing homes and excluded thousands who fell ill and died in hospitals or elsewhere.

Tracey Alvino, a co-director of VoicesForSeniors told the Post that, “Zucker is trying to cover his tracks. He’s trying to blame everything on disgraced Cuomo but he was complicit.”

Alvino added that, :“Zucker was instrumental in putting out the fraudulent COVID data and he’s the one who signed the order putting 9,000 hospital patients with COVID into nursing homes. Nursing home families deserve to know why Zucker is still employed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.”

One of the 16,000 nursing home residents was Alvino’s father, according to the Post report.

Zucker had repeatedly claimed that the March 25, 2020 mandate was not a major driver of nursing home deaths — though Cuomo later rescinded it and some studies claimed it was a factor, according to the Post report.

Also weighing in on this issue was Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) who called Zucker’s latest remarks about data transparency “a cowardly act to save his own ass,” according to the Post report. Kim, who is the state assembly chairman of the aging committee told the Post that, “Zucker’s got to go. He’s beyond unethical. He was Cuomo’s enabler, enforcer and executioner.” Kim was also the first to call for Cuomo to resign, be impeached and investigated by prosecutors, as was reported by the Post.

On Thursday, Hochul said that who will stay in her employ and who will be dismissed in a 45-day transition period.