CNN's Chris Cuomo is accused of abusing his position as the brother of NY Gov. Cuomo to get a priority COVID test

 CNN has been slammed for its 'lack of ethics' after a report claimed that the network's anchor, Chris Cuomo, abused his position as the brother of New York Gov Andrew Cuomo to get a priority COVID-19 test before thousands of others when the state was the epicenter of the pandemic last year. 

According to a report from The Washington Post on Wednesday, Gov Cuomo gave family members, including his brother, Chris, special access to state-administered COVID-19 tests in the early days of the pandemic.

In response to the claims, Matt Dornic, the head of strategic communications for CNN, said in a statement: 'We generally do not get involved in the medical decisions of our employees.'

'However, it is not surprising 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,' Dornic said in the statement shared by Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple. 

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CNN has been slammed for its 'lack of ethics' after a report claimed that the network's anchor, Chris Cuomo (left), abused his position as the brother of New York Gov Andrew Cuomo (right) to get a priority COVID-19 test before thousands of others

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In response to the claims, Matt Dornic, the head of strategic communications for CNN, said in a statement: 'We generally do not get involved in the medical decisions of our employees'

CNN's statement drew ire from several people, including conservative writer A.G. Hamilton (tweet pictured) 

The Post, which cited three unnamed people with knowledge of the situation, reported that a top state doctor made house calls to some of the governor's family members or close associates, including his brother, to administer the tests. 

Chris tested positive for COVID-19 early in the pandemic. 

Following CNN's statement, several people took to Twitter to blast the network.

'The lack of ethics here from CNN is incredible,' conservative writer A.G. Hamilton tweeted. 

'It's not just that Andrew Cuomo abused his position to get friends and family (inc Chris) inaccessible and expedited tests, but that CNN then had Andrew Cuomo do weekly joke interviews with his brother knowing that abuse happened,' he added.

Former MSNBC host, Keith Olbermann shared: 'HOO boy who thought THIS would help?'

Several people blasted CNN for not admitting wrongdoing in the incident 

'That is a very bad statement,' another tweeted. 

Radio host, Derek Hunter, wrote: 'A long-winded version of 'Don't you know who I am?'

The claims add more fuel to the fire as Gov Cuomo is already facing calls to resign over accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct from at least eight women and disclosures that his administration under-reported nursing home deaths from the pandemic.

The 63-year-old third-term governor has denied the allegations and repeatedly said he would not resign from office.

In a statement, Gov Cuomo's spokesman Richard Azzopardi said: 'We should avoid 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.'

Those efforts 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 prevent additional ones,' the statement added.

Among those 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,' Azzopardi said.