Cuomo Accepts Some Blame in Nursing Home Scandal but Denies Cover-Up

Admitting a degree of fault for the first time, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that his administration’s lack of transparency about the scope of coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes in New York was a mistake.

By failing to answer questions from state lawmakers, the public and the news media, Mr. Cuomo acknowledged, the state created a void that was “filled with skepticism, and cynicism, and conspiracy theories which furthered the confusion.”

But he stopped short of a full apology for his handling of information about the death toll in the state’s nursing homes, an issue that has engulfed his administration in recent weeks.

Speaking in the State Capitol, Mr. Cuomo made his first remarks since a top aide to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, privately told some state lawmakers last week that the state had withheld data from the Legislature because it feared that the Trump administration would use the information to begin a federal civil rights investigation.