Mary Wilson
Well-known member
On Monday, Texas began using death certificates to identify COVID-19 deaths, leading to a spike in the state's death toll.
By Aria Jones
1:33 PM on Jul 27, 2020 — Updated 10 minutes ago
Updated at 8:10 p.m: Revised throughout.
More than 600 deaths from COVID-19 were added to Texas’ toll Monday as the state began using death certificates to identify them — a method that officials say is more consistent.
Previously, the Texas Department of State Health Services relied on local and regional health departments to publicly report deaths from the coronavirus.
This process took too long, varied by jurisdiction and did not provide timely demographic information on most deaths, officials said.
By law, death certificates have to be filed within 10 days. DSHS said using death certificates also allows the agency to give more detail by showing the date of death.
“A fatality is counted as due to COVID-19 when the medical certifier, usually a doctor with direct knowledge of the patient, determines COVID-19 directly caused the death,” DSHS said in a written statement. “This method does not include deaths of people who had COVID-19 but died of an unrelated cause.”
On Monday, 44 new deaths were reported along with 631 deaths added in the change, raising the state’s total to 5,713 fatalities from the virus. The state also reported 4,267 new coronavirus cases.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/pub...rting-glitch-but-hes-increasingly-optimistic/
By Aria Jones
1:33 PM on Jul 27, 2020 — Updated 10 minutes ago
Updated at 8:10 p.m: Revised throughout.
More than 600 deaths from COVID-19 were added to Texas’ toll Monday as the state began using death certificates to identify them — a method that officials say is more consistent.
Previously, the Texas Department of State Health Services relied on local and regional health departments to publicly report deaths from the coronavirus.
This process took too long, varied by jurisdiction and did not provide timely demographic information on most deaths, officials said.
By law, death certificates have to be filed within 10 days. DSHS said using death certificates also allows the agency to give more detail by showing the date of death.
“A fatality is counted as due to COVID-19 when the medical certifier, usually a doctor with direct knowledge of the patient, determines COVID-19 directly caused the death,” DSHS said in a written statement. “This method does not include deaths of people who had COVID-19 but died of an unrelated cause.”
On Monday, 44 new deaths were reported along with 631 deaths added in the change, raising the state’s total to 5,713 fatalities from the virus. The state also reported 4,267 new coronavirus cases.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/pub...rting-glitch-but-hes-increasingly-optimistic/