Justice Department Asks Murphy For Data On NJ Nursing Home Deaths

NEW YORK, NY — The US Justice Department has asked for coronavirus data from New Jersey and three other states where governors issued orders that federal authorities said could have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.

New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan required nursing homes to admit patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, to their vulnerable populations often without adequate testing, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Gov. Phil Murphy has been the target of criticism from lawmakers – including former Gov. Chris Christie – for not doing enough to protect the state's vulnerable population when the coronavirus crisis first hit in March.

An NJ Advance Media investigation found New Jersey issued an order late March requiring nursing homes to take back non-critically ill residents from hospitals as long as they’d been discharged and were recovering. Nursing homes were also supposed to separate those residents from others, but the report says not all of them did.

New Jersey reported on Wednesday that the number of cases rose to 190,306, and 14,134 confirmed deaths have been reported. Of those fatalities, 7,069 involved long-term care facility residents and staff. Read more: NJ Coronavirus, Reopen Updates: Here's What You Need To Know

In a letter Wednesday to Murphy, Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil rights division, said the unit is evaluating whether state orders requiring admission of COVID-19 patients to nursing homes led to the deaths of residents.

“Protecting the rights of some of society’s most vulnerable members, including elderly nursing home residents, is one of our country’s most important obligations,” Dreiband said in a news release. "We must ensure they are adequately cared for with dignity and respect and not unnecessarily put at risk."

Federal authorities asked Murphy to provide documents from each individual public nursing home on:

• Number of public nursing home residents, employees, other staff, guests and visitors who contracted COVID-19, regardless of where they contracted the disease.
• Number of public nursing home residents, employees, other staff, guests and visitors who died of COVID-19 including those who died in a public nursing home or after being moved to a hospital or other medical facility, hospice, home care or any other location.
• All state-issued guidance, directives, advisories or executive orders regarding admission of persons to public nursing homes, including those previously superseded, as well as the dates each such document was in effect.
• Number of people who were admitted to a public nursing home from a hospital or any other facility, hospice, home care or other location after testing positive for COVID-19 during the period the guidance or orders were in effect.

"We request the above information within 14 days," Dreiband said.

The attorney general in March announced the Justice Department’s national nursing home effort. The department is investigating a Massachusetts nursing home for veterans where at least 76 residents died of COVID-19.