More than 5,000 people connected to long-term care in New Jersey have died from Covid-19 — half of all the Covid deaths in the state.  The highest single death toll is the 78 who have died at the Veterans Memorial Home in Paramus, N.J.

Family members describe receiving wrong or misleading information and chaos at the veterans home that characterizes the response at many of the state’s nursing homes.

“Overall, they just weren’t honest or transparent on how bad the place was,” said Stephen Mastropieto, who lost his father Thomas at the home.  “And they didn’t give myself or other people the ability to make a decision on what to do properly. Looking back, I would have done it differently, knowing how bad the situation was.”