Oklahoma public health officials are hoping to close a widening gap when it comes to recording deaths related to COVID-19.
The late-2020 surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths left many of the state’s tracking systems behind as providers responsible for updating reports concentrated on providing patient care ahead of filling out reports. It was further exacerbated as epidemiologists and other public health officials got behind in fatality case investigations, which is the total the state has been publishing for COVID-19 deaths.
That has led to a stark difference in the state’s death toll from COVID-19 and one kept by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state said its tally of reported deaths reached 4,478 on Monday. That’s an undercount of about 2,500 from the totals reported by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, which reported 6,970 deaths.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health said on Monday it was working on a system to better reflect COVID-19 deaths in Oklahoma in a more timely manner.
“At this point, we want to just get that number out in front of people to where they understand that we’ve never been seeking to minimize. We’ve always been striving to be as timely and accurate as we can,” said Dr. Jared Taylor, state epidemiologist for the health department.