SIDNEY – Shelby County reported 11 new COVID-19 deaths in the past week as the Ohio Department of Health adjusts the process by which it reports deaths caused by the coronavirus.
The Ohio Department of Health is transitioning from the Ohio Disease Reporting System to the Electronic Death Registration System, which Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said should result in more accurate reporting moving forward.
“There is going to be some fluctuation in deaths as we make the transition,” Vanderhoff said. “We’re moving from one system to another. The data will be accurate, but it could fluctuate just because there is a move from one system to the other.”
As part of the change, the Ohio Department of Health will update COVID-19 death data a couple times a week instead of daily. The reporting of deaths could be delayed compared to the previous system but should be more accurate.
“We were engaged in a manual process that attempted to provide information in real time,” Health Director Stephanie McCloud said. “Manual processes, again, are fraught with more opportunities for mistakes, for human error, of course, and less reliability even though it is faster in time. What we’re looking to do is make a move to what many physicians and other public health experts would refer to as the gold standard.”
Two weeks ago Shelby County reported 41 new COVID-19 deaths that previously had been undercounted. Statewide, the Ohio Department of Health found it had underreported approximately 4,275 COVID-19 deaths, mostly in November and December.
In total, Shelby County has reported 4,424 cases of COVID-19 with 146 hospitalizations and 79 deaths during the pandemic. The county saw an increase of three hospitalizations and 11 deaths since last week.
There are 4,264 Shelby County residents who are presumed to have recovered from COVID-19, and there are 81 active cases – down from the 104 active cases that were reported last week.
Throughout Ohio there have been 974,480 cases of COVID-19 with 50,695 hospitalizations, 7,181 intensive care admissions and 17,189 deaths.
In Shelby County, 5,426 people have started or completed COVID-19 vaccinations, which is 11.17% of the population and up 998 people since last week. Statewide, 1,803,091 people have been vaccinated, which is 15.43% of the population.
For more information about COVID-19, visit https://coronavirus.ohio.gov and www.shelbycountyhealthdept.org.
