Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered priority COVID-19 tests for relatives, associates, report says

Andrew Cuomo is already facing other crises, including sexual harassment accusations and a scandal involving the handling of nursing home deaths. The relatives who received priority testing in March 2020 included the governor’s CNN anchor brother, Chris Cuomo, his 89-year-old mother, Matilda Cuomo, and at least one of his sisters, sources told the Albany Times-Union. One of the sources told the Times-Union that the prioritization of Cuomo relatives and friends likely distracted key Health Department officials battling the pandemic from other more pressing work. “It was like wartime.” Rich Azzopardi, a senior Cuomo advisor, didn’t directly address the allegations that relatives and associates of the governor got preferential treatment, but slammed what he called “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,” he said in an email. “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.” The allegations about Cuomo meddling in Health Department business come as the governor faces sexual harassment accusations and a separate scandal involving his administration’s handling of coronavirus deaths in state nursing homes.