REPORTS: Gov. Cuomo's Family Received Special Access to Then-Scarce COVID Virus Tests

The relatives of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and others with close ties to him received special access to coronavirus tests a year ago when testing was scarce, according to several published reports in newspapers.

The governor's family members including his brother, CNN journalist Chris Cuomo, his mother, and at least one of his sisters were tested by top health department officials, some of them several times, according to the Times Union of Albany. 

The testing of Cuomo's family and people closely associated with him was carried out by high-ranking state health officials, The New York Times reported. The testing was done in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.

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Both newspapers cited multiple people with direct knowledge of the testing but did not identify them.

A spokesman for the Democratic governor did not explicitly deny that the administration had extended special treatment to people close to the governor but sought to dispute the notion.

"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," Rich Azzopardi said in a statement to the newspapers, adding that the effort included "in some instances going to people's homes — and door-to door-in places like New Rochelle — to take samples from those believed to have been exposed to Covid in order to identify cases" and to prevent others from developing the disease.

Samples taken from people close to Cuomo, including those from his relatives, were moved to the front of the line at the state's testing facility in Albany and were given priority, one source told the Times Union. 

Chris Cuomo was diagnosed with COVID-19 in late March of 2020. The CNN anchor was swabbed by a top state health department doctor who visited his Hamptons home to collect samples from him and his family, people with knowledge of the matter told The Washington Post, which did not identify them.

In a statement late Wednesday, CNN spokesperson Matt Dornic said: "We generally do not get involved in the medical decisions of our employees. However, it is not surprising that in the earliest days of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, when Chris was showing symptoms and was concerned about possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for advice and assistance, as any human being would."

The same doctor who tested the CNN anchor, Dr. Eleanor Adams, now an advisor to the New York state health commissioner, was also tasked with the job of testing other Cuomo family members, two people told The Washington Post. 

New York law prohibits state officials from using their positions to secure privileges for themselves or others, the newspaper reported. 

The news of the Cuomo relatives' testing comes as the third-term governor battles several controversies, including an investigation by the New York State Attorney General and the State Assembly into allegations of sexual harassment, which Cuomo has denied. 

Gov. Cuomo is also facing a federal inquiry into the state's reporting of COVID-19 in nursing homes. He's also under fire for putting COVID-infected individuals into nursing homes where the infection rates and death tolls were spiking.