Andrew Cuomo’s family and allies had special access to coronavirus testing at the start of the pandemic

The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, gave priority to family and allies to have tests done for the coronavirus covid-19 at the beginning of the pandemic, when these were scarce and the state became the world epicenter of the virus, as reported this Wednesday by the newspaper The Washington Post.

In addition to prioritizing family members and allies, the tests that were carried out were also prioritized in the laboratory, with the capacity to analyze only hundreds of tests a day at the beginning of the pandemic.

On many occasions the state deployed home doctors to perform the tests, who were then escorted to the laboratory in Albany by state police to expedite the process.

In the laboratory, samples were handled secretively, marked only with initials or numbers.

On the governor’s list of beneficiaries is one of his brothers, Chris Cuomo, one of the star presenters of the CNN chain and who was diagnosed with the virus in March 2020.

According to the Post, Chris Cuomo received in his home a high-ranking doctor from the Department of Health of New York to obtain the nasal sample.

Cuomo He did not present his late-night show on CNN on Wednesday without the network explaining why.

A spokesman for the governor, Rich Azzopardi, justified these practices to The Washington Post.

“We must avoid insincere efforts to rewrite the past. In the early days of this pandemic, when there was a great emphasis on contact tracing, we went above and beyond to get people tested, even in some cases, going home. “ He said.

“Among those who attended,” he added, “were people from the general population, including legislators, reporters, state workers and their families who feared they had contracted the virus and had the ability to spread it further.”

These revelations of possible influence peddling come at a bad time for Cuomo, haunted by several accusations of sexual harassment and abuse of power, which have led to large calls for his resignation within his own party, the Democrat, and an investigation by of the New York Attorney General’s Office.

In addition, the federal authorities are investigating him for another case for manipulation of data on deaths from covid-19 in nursing homes in New York.

US President Joe Biden has said Cuomo should resign if the allegations against him are upheld.