Ohio Department of Health: COVID-19 deaths underreported, 4,000 could be added to state’s total

Updated: Feb 10, 2021 / 06:10 PM CST

Close up photo of female scientist holding a laboratory pipette and a blood sample tube for covid-19 in laboratory. She is wearing a protective suit, laboratory glasses, surgical mask and surgical gloves. Selective focus on tube. Shot with a full frame mirrorless camera.

COLUMBUS (NewsNation Now) — The Ohio Department of Health Wednesday said the state’s COVID-19 death count may have been underreported by as many as 4,000 people.

The health department said the underreported deaths will be added to the state’s total during the coming week.

Process issues affecting the reconciliation and reporting of these deaths began in October. The largest number of deaths were from November and December. Although being reported this week, the deaths will reflect the appropriate date of death on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.
ODH will continue working with the Auditor of State’s office, which has been engaged in an audit of COVID-19 data since September of 2020.
The issue related to the unreconciled COVID-19 deaths was identified by the Ohio Department of Health during a routine employee training.
As these deaths are added to the counts, the daily reported death counts will be high for a two to three-day period. After this increase, normal processes will resume, with increased quality assurance related to the death reconciliation process.
OHIO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.

A total of 11,856 COVID-19-related have been reported in Ohio since the beginning of the pandemic.