A winter storm forecast to make its way across the Midwest and Northeast by the end of Tuesday is expected to dump around a foot of snow on major cities. 

The National Weather Service (NWS) as of Monday morning is estimating 13 inches of snow for Chicago and Buffalo, while Cleveland is expected to get a foot.

“Heavy snow and freezing rain are forecast to advance northeastward today from the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys to the Northeast,” it said Monday in an advisory. “A large swath of 6 to 12 inches of snow is forecast from the Ohio Valley and eastern Great Lakes to northern New England.”

UNPRECEDENTED WINTER WEATHER PATTERN HAS SET UP ACROSS THE US: HERE’S WHAT IS COMING THIS WEEK 

“South of the heavy snow axis, freezing rain is expected to cause a plethora of problems with over a tenth of an inch of ice in the forecast from far east Texas northeastward to southern New England,” the advisory added. 

Around the Midwest and Northeast, the winter storm is estimated to leave 10 inches of snow in Indianapolis and Burlington, Vermont.  

Cincinnati is expected to receive 9 inches of snow, while the NWS predicts that Columbus will see 8 inches. 

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St. Louis is also forecast to get up to 7 inches of snow. 

“There will be significant travel disruption and a concern for power outages in the system’s path,” the NWS says. 

Embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s catastrophic failure surrounding the state’s growing nursing home scandal represents a permanent stain on a legacy tainted with deceit, chaos and thousands of deaths, critics are saying — and he could be taking his younger brother down with him.

Cuomo’s nursing home controversy came under renewed focus last week when his top aide admitted that his administration had withheld the true number of COVID-19 related deaths at nursing homes to avoid federal scrutiny, as first reported by the New York Post. 

NEW YORK GOV. CUOMO’S LITTLE BROTHER SILENT ON NURSING HOME SCANDAL

The state was forced to acknowledge a death toll among nursing home residents that reached close to 15,000 after initially reporting 8,500 — a figure that excluded residents who died in a hospital.

Cuomo’s directive for nursing homes to accept patients who had or were suspected of having COVID-19 has since been deemed “one of the biggest scandals of the pandemic.” The decision created an onslaught of COVID-19 cases that infected a large part of the state’s elderly patients and resulted in thousands of deaths among its most vulnerable population. 

But as New York residents began to raise questions over the surging death toll in senior care facilities, the governor’s little brother and most ardent protector, Chris Cuomo, offered him a platform on his CNN show, “Cuomo Prime Time,” to appeal to viewers by conducting playful on-air conversations, largely avoiding the nursing home scandal entirely. 

“This isn’t just a government scandal. It’s a media scandal,” New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz wrote in a recent column. “For while the Cuomo administration was sentencing seniors to death, the media was busy fawning over Cuomo in a series of softball interviews, many of them conducted by his own brother.”

CUOMO AIDE TELLS NY DEMOCRATS ADMINISTRATION HID NURSING HOME DATA TO KEEP IT FROM TRUMP DOJ: REPORT 

As grieving New Yorkers angrily awaited answers, the Cuomo brothers joked on air about trivial matters, wondering aloud which of the two would be considered their mother’s favorite child and even resorting to physical comedy when the CNN anchor presented a cartoonishly oversized cotton swab for his brother to use for a coronavirus test.

Days after the elder Cuomo reversed course and signed an executive order on May 11 stopping hospitals from sending infected patients back to nursing homes and ramping up testing for staff, he appeared on his brother’s show for a 25-minute sit-down that made no mention of the nursing home death toll.

The CNN anchor finally mentioned the controversy to his brother after ignoring it during at least 10 on-air interviews, but the governor quickly pointed to how there were nursing home deaths “all across the country” and said “we have to figure out how to do it better the next time” before the next virus wave occurs.

In a different interview, the younger brother showered the “Love Gov” with praise as New York’s leader and even admitted to his viewers, “Of course, I’m not objective” while expressing his love for his brother.

“He’s my big brother. I love him. Of course, I’m not objective, but let’s call it straight. Look at the state, look at the numbers… Yes, he’s my brother,” the younger Cuomo said at the time. “There’s no question. I can cry about it in a second, but the results are there for all to see. Was it perfect? No, you tell me what is, but look at the state our country’s in. And if you don’t think this is going to be reflected in what happens in November, then you haven’t been paying attention.”

Along the way, Gov. Cuomo emerged as a darling of the liberal media, writing a book about his leadership throughout the pandemic. Months of glowing coverage from his brother’s network even earned him an Emmy Award for his coronavirus briefings.

A bombshell development in the scandal embroiling both brothers emerged last week when the Post reported that Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, told leading Empire State Democrats during a video conference call that the administration misrepresented the true number of deaths to DOJ investigators over fears that the data could “be used against us.”

Since the scandal broke, Chris Cuomo has neither mentioned it on his show nor has he tweeted about it – devoting tweets and airtime instead to the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

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Republicans who accuse the administration of a deliberate “cover-up” are now calling for investigations into and the resignations of both Gov. Cuomo and DeRosa. A growing number of Democrats are joining calls to rescind Gov. Cuomo’s emergency executive powers, blasting the administration’s defense of its secrecy, as his brother remains silent. 

Gov. Cuomo has defended himself in the wake of the nursing home report by saying, “Everybody did the best they could.”

In a press conference Friday, he said the state followed federal guidance. “If you think there was a mistake, then go talk to the federal government,” he said. “It’s not about pointing fingers or blame, this became a political football.” 

Aides to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed that the state’s laws have been too relaxed on nursing homes, noting that no facilities have lost their licenses despite widespread COVID-19 deaths.    

“I think a lot of these nursing homes, frankly, retrospectively, even prior to COVID have been getting away with a lot for a lot of years,” Secretary to Gov. Cuomo, Melissa DeRosa said, according to audio of last week’s conference call with Democratic lawmakers reviewed by The New York Post. 

“I think that if there is any evidence that anyone was willful, or anyone was negligent in a way that goes beyond the normal course that costs people’s lives, I think that we all share the same goal, which is to hold them accountable,” DeRosa added.

CNN’S BRIAN STELTER IGNORES BOMBSHELL DEVELOPMENT IN CUOMO NURSING HOME SCANDAL

But when pressed by state Sen. James Skoufis (D-Orange) on what steps the state has taken to hold nursing homes accountable, Cuomo’s counsel, Beth Garvey, conceded that revoking nursing home licenses “has not happened” yet. 

“We have significant due process, obviously, for those operators that we have to go through and hearings,” Garvey said. “So those are still ongoing.”

When asked if any facilities had been placed in receivership, Garvey said no receivers have been appointed as of right now. 

GOWDY: BIDEN’S UNITY PUSH SHOULD START WITH CUOMO NURSING HOME VICTIMS

The New York Department of Health has reportedly conducted 2,284 infection control inspections in nursing homes between the start of the pandemic and Feb. 4. However, the audits have resulted in just 170 violations being issued, amounting to roughly $1.3 million in fines, capped at $10,000 a piece.

“Ten thousand dollars is really the maximum that we can assess for a violation, even a willful violation of a public health law,” Garvey explained.

Skoufis argues the amount “seems low given sort of the sort of knowledge that we’re all operating with,” pointing out that the violations would be roughly $7,650 per infraction, a sum he said is merely “a slap on the wrist.”

CUOMO NURSING HOME COVERUP SCANDAL LOOKS LIKE OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE: ZELDIN

DeRosa acknowledged the need to step up enforcement, noting that state officials could explore ways to expedite the process. 

“I think that that’s something we should revisit, I think then we should be increasing the penalties,” she said. “I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t have due process. But if there is a way that we can change the law where we can expedite some of this, we should do it.”

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told FOX News in a statement that legislators “seemed to agree with us that the fines were too low” and that “new actions are needed to further protect patients in these facilities.” He added that there is a commitment to “further discuss these vital changes.”  

NY GOV. CUOMO’S LITTLE BROTHER SILENT ON BIG BROTHER’S NURSING HOME SCANDAL

The comments were made during the same meeting in which DeRosa revealed the state delayed the release of data related to COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities due to concerns about a potential federal investigation.

“I was explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first. We informed the houses of this at the time. We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout,” DeRosa said in a statement. “As I said on a call with legislators, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would have liked. But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic.”

But on the private call, DeRosa said the administration “froze” because it was unsure what information was going to be turned over to the Department of Justice, and didn’t want any information relayed to lawmakers to be used against the Cuomo administration.  

“The letter comes in at the end of August and right around the same time, President Trump turns this into a giant political football. He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes, he starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer,” she said, according to the partial transcript of the meeting released by the governor’s office. “He directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us. He finds one person at DOJ, who since has been fired because this person is now known to be a political hack, who sends letters out to all of these different governors. And basically, we froze, because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice or what we give to you guys, what we start saying was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.”

DeRosa then apologized to Democratic lawmakers for the position that they were put in due to the data. 

“I know that it is not fair,” she said. “It was not our intent to put you in that political position with the Republicans.”

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In recent weeks, a court order and state attorney general report have forced the state to acknowledge the nursing home resident death toll is nearly 15,000, when it previously reported 8,500 – a number that excluded residents who died after being taken to hospitals. The new toll amounts to about one-seventh of the people living in nursing homes as of 2019 in New York.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

The United States saw average daily new coronavirus cases dip below 100,000 for the first time in months, but health officials cautioned that states looking to relax their health mandates may be acting too soon.

The seven-day rolling average of new infections dropped below 100,000 on Friday and remained below that level on Saturday, creating the first stretch since early November that the country has seen similar levels.

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Cases hit a seven-day rolling average of around 250,000 in January.

Centers for Disease Control Director Rochelle Walensky urged states not to jump to optimistic conclusions based on the recent numbers.

“We are still at around 100,000 cases a day,” Walensky told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd. “We are still around 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day.”

“It’s encouraging to see these trends coming down, but they’re coming down from an extraordinarily high place,” she added.

Walensky noted that these lower numbers are still more than twice what the nation recorded during the summer.

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Deaths on Saturday hit a seven-day rolling average of around 2,500.

The U.S. is still trying to push more vaccinations, with the CDC recording 50 million vaccinations nationwide by the end of last week.

However, the appearance of COVID variants in the U.S. may be one reason that states need to maintain strict standards of public health policy.

The U.S. has recorded over one thousand cases of the U.K. variant across thirty-nine states. The U.K. variant has been measured as around 40 to 50 percent more transmissible.

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“We have to continue wearing masks,” Walensky said. “We have to continue with our current mitigation measures, and we have to continue getting vaccinated as soon as that vaccine is available to us.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.