Cuomo prioritized testing for his family at the start of the pandemic. They were previously analyzed in the laboratory and samples were taken at home.

The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, gave priority to family and allies to be tested for covid-19 at the beginning of the pandemic, when these were scarce and the state became the global epicenter of the virus, as reported this Wednesday 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 speed up the process. In the laboratory, samples were handled secretively, marked only with initials or numbers.

New York Assembly to investigate sexual allegations against Cuomo
In the list of beneficiaries by the governor is one of his brothers, Chris Cuomo, one of the star presenters of the CNN network and who was diagnosed with the virus in March 2020. According to the Post, Chris Cuomo received at his home a senior physician from the New York Department of Health to obtain the nasal sample.

Cuomo 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 to their homes “he said.

“Among those we 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.